'Test success will fulfil my career'

• As a player, I think my career will come to fulfilment when I will be able to play Test cricket. If I can be successful in Test cricket then I will feel that I am fit for cricket. Uncapped Bangladesh batsman Mohammad Mithun

• Patience is important in Test cricket and we developed it by playing first-class cricket. You have to bowl long spells if you want a wicket. I was hungry for wickets and because of that I had to be patient. Bangladesh pacer Abu Jayed

This is the era of T20 madness. Love it or hate it, the newest format of the game has cornered all the glamour, especially in terms of financial attraction. Against this backdrop when someone sings the praises of Test cricket, it sounds pretty good to lovers of the original game. Bangladesh's uncapped batsman Mohammad Mithun and rookie pacer Abu Jayed both talked up the importance of Test cricket while talking to the reporters at the team hotel in Sylhet yesterday.

“As a player, I think my career will come to fulfilment when I will be able to play Test cricket. If I can be successful in Test cricket then I will feel that I am fit for cricket,” Mithun said when asked about how it would feel to play Test cricket after playing T20Is and ODIs.

Jayed has already played two Tests, besides three T20Is, and said longer-version cricket is his favoured format among the three versions of the game.

“I have always said that while I like T20s and ODIs, I enjoy Test cricket most. I have loved to play longer-version cricket from my early days,” said local boy Jayed, who has a long-cherished dream of playing a Test match on his home ground.

While Jayed was excited with the prospect of playing a Test against Zimbabwe at home, Mithun treated his maiden Test call-up with equanimity.

“It's never happened in my life [over-excitement with anything]. Maybe it's my nature. I try to take it easy even when I dropped from the team. I take everything easily,” said Mithun when asked whether he felt special excitement upon receiving the maiden Test call-up.

Both Jayed and Mithun were however looking forward on banking on their domestic first-class experience ahead of the first Test of the two-match series.

“Patience is important in Test cricket and we developed it by playing first-class cricket. See, you have to bowl long spells if you want a wicket. I was hungry for wickets and because of that I had to be patient while bowling long spells,” said Jayed. 

“We have been playing first-class cricket on these kinds of wickets. We bowled the maximum overs with the old ball and last season the pacers bowled well with the old ball, so we will have to provide breakthroughs with both new ball and old,” Jayed added, disagreeing with the notion that Bangladesh pace bowlers' impact is limited to new-ball spells.

Bangladesh pace bowlers got help from the Dukes ball in the last series in West Indies and this time they will bowl with the SG ball, but Jayed was hopeful of success.

“It's true that you get much swing with the Dukes ball, but SG is also the same as Dukes. And if there is no swing initially, we can reverse-swing the ball because there is movement in the SG ball. If it is a flat wicket, there is a chance of reverse swing,” explained Jayed, painting a bright picture of Bangladesh's pace-bowling department.

Mithun also stressed on the need for patience to make an impact in Test cricket, but believed that scoring runs is equally important these days.

“You have to take time in Test cricket. As a batsman, I will definitely take time to settle if I get the chance to play the first Test, but in the end runs are also important. You have to punish the bad ball. No matter how much time you spend in the middle you have to score runs, otherwise you are not a set batsman,” opined the right-hander.

“Experience is important in Test cricket. You have to have great experience to play Test cricket. I have been playing first-class cricket for a long time and it will help me. If we look at other Test nations, most Test cricketers come into the team on the back of huge domestic experience. I have also got that experience and I will try to capitalise on it,” he continued.

Mithun said that he was fortunate that he has got teammates like Tushar Imran and Abdur Razzak in Khulna Division, who have helped him learn the craft of how to cope in difficult conditions.