‘Playing Pakistan is just another match’

All-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz said that a fiery first hour from the Bangladesh bowlers on Day 5 of the first Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi can create an unlikely opening for the Tigers in a contest that seemingly is heading towards a draw. 

Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam reaped the rewards of a sizzling spell during the last hour of play when he dismissed Pakistan opener Saim Ayub (1) and had the duo of Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood guessing as the hosts finished the day at 27 for one, still trailing by 94 runs after bundling out the Tigers for 565 earlier.

From the other end, Hasan Mahmud provided adept support with strict line and lengths which boosted confidence in the Tigers' camp to make use of the morning session which should indicate if the Test will see a result other than a draw.

"Our bowlers will have a great chance in the first hour. If we bowl well in the first hour, we will be in a good position," Miraz told reporters after the day's play.

"We have a great chance tomorrow. If we get a few wickets in the first hour, we will get a chance to win. The bowlers need to bowl in good areas. I was fielding at slips and it felt really good to see the way they bowled in the last hour."

Throughout the four days, it has been a challenge for the bowlers to stamp their authority on a Rawalpindi wicket which has maintained the tradition of being a batters' paradise. While pacers have fared better than spinners at the venue, spinners will have a role to play, largely in providing breathers to the quicks in between spells. They can also hope to make use of the turn the Day 5 pitch may provide.

Miraz attested to the visibility of cracks on the surface and will look to do the job with the ball after an impressive 77 with the bat.

"The wicket looks good right now. There are a few cracks and there is a little bit of spin as well," Miraz said.

Earlier, Mushfiqur Rahim stood tall with the bat after the Tigers were reduced to 218 for five on Day 3. The 37-year-old starred with a 191-run knock but fell short of his fourth double century. He stitched a 114-run stand with Liton Das (56) and set a Bangladesh record with a 196-run seventh-wicket stand with Miraz to propel the Tigers to 565.

"We're really happy because we've scored 500 runs after a long time. We had a good partnership. The credit goes to him [Mushfiqur]. He kept supporting me and told me to keep going as it was an excellent wicket," Miraz said.

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was included in the Tigers' 16-member squad for the upcoming Test tour of Pakistan despite Bangladesh Cricket Board sources claiming that the 37-year-old's fitness for red-ball cricket would be taken into consideration before selection.

Shakib played in Bangladesh's last red-ball assignment in May when the Tigers hosted Sri Lanka for a two-match series and has featured in T20 cricket since then, including stints in the Major League Cricket in the USA, the Lanka Premier League in Sri Lanka, and a deep run in Canada's GT20.

Middle-order batter Shahadat Hossain Dipu was left out, while Mushfiqur Rahim and Taskin Ahmed returned to the side. 

The Tigers will leave for Lahore tomorrow and will train at the Gaddafi Stadium on August 14, 15, and 16 before the first Test begins on August 21. The second match will start on August 30.

SQUAD: Najmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Zakir Hasan, Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Nahid Rana, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Taskin Ahmed, Syed Khaled Ahmed

Bangladesh cricket is set to get a glimpse of a new era in Tests when they take on hosts West Indies in the first of the two World Test Championship (WTC) fixtures from November 22 in Antigua.

The game will be the Tigers' first in the format without any of the 'Big Five' -- Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza -- since they all appeared together in a Test, also away to the Windies, in 2009.

However, the notion of a future sans the 'Big Five' isn't something new for Bangladesh cricket and its fans.

The inevitable had been anticipated for a while now, but preparations for it have not matched the talk of the fear garnered at the prospect of it. There could be two bleak reasons for this -- first, the subpar cricketing culture that could not provide another as talented a bunch of cricketers as the 'Big Five' in the past decade, and second, the over-hyped legacy left behind by the five stalwarts.

While their individual heroics bailed Bangladesh out a number of times or at least provided solace in an otherwise underwhelming match, series, tour, or tournament, the collective achievements of the 'Big Five' are a far cry from the level of hype they garnered.

Or, maybe, the hype is befitting the standard of a team like Bangladesh, who are currently tottering at nine in all three formats.

That game in which Bangladesh beat hosts West Indies by 95 runs in Kingstown in 2009 to register their only second Test victory was, however, the final appearance in the format for Mashrafe, who had to limp off the field due to an injury very early in that game.

Including that only Test, the 'Big Five' of Bangladesh's cricket have played together in 111 matches across formats, helping the Tigers win on 54 occasions. Bangladesh lost in 53 of these matches with four producing no results.

Not as overwhelming a figure as it is made to look, right?

However, focusing only on results will definitely not give the entire picture of the impression that these particular five have left on Bangladesh cricket's landscape.

As startling as it may sound, during the nearly 12-year period between their first appearance together for Bangladesh -- against Sri Lanka in the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup -- and the last one -- also in a World Cup, albeit in the ODI version, in a game against Pakistan at Lord's in July 2019 -- the Tigers have not played a single game across formats without at least one of the five stalwarts.

This particular fact shows how important each of Shakib, Tamim, Mushfiqur, Mahmudullah, and Mashrafe have been for Bangladesh. On the flip side, it also tells a sorry tale of a cricketing nation that has failed to produce such talents who could emulate, join, or, even surpass the legacy of these five cricketers -- a statement that could be further validated by the fact that since the end of that 12-year period, Bangladesh have played 14 matches across formats without any of the 'Big Five' and the result has kind of been similar with the Tigers losing seven and winning six.

The fear of not having the experience of at least one of those stalwarts might have been made to sound like a huge deal, but as reality depicts, things have continued on the same trajectory as before.

With another Windies series knocking, will things take a turn for the better? Recent results, including the humiliating losses to South Africa at home and away to India in the previous two months, don't augur well for the Tigers.

Even though they have been a part of the mediocre cricket Bangladesh have played over the years, the 'Big Five' are not to be blamed for how their contributions have been inflated more than deserved.

And, now, with none of these five cricketers in the picture for at least this Windies series, this gives the Tigers an opportunity to at least show indications of snapping out of the long-prevailing mediocrity.

"This many people usually don't turn up to see a fitness test at six in the morning. I'm sure they are here because it's happening at the Bangabandhu [National] Stadium," said Shahriar Nafees, the current cricket operations manager, after the national team's fitness test at the famed venue yesterday. 

Thirty-five cricketers turned up at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) yesterday before 6:00 am for a physical assessment test, which required them to run a 1600m race in the newly installed athletic tracks.

This running session was the first professional cricket-related activity at the venue since January 31, 2015. The BNS did host the inauguration ceremony of the ODI World Cup in 2011, but there was no on-field cricketing activity at the venue.

Although the BNS has been a football stadium since 2006, it remains a venue deeply rooted in cricketing history.

Even before Bangladesh came into existence, this venue hosted Pakistan's inaugural Test match against India in 1955. A total of seven Tests took place at BNS, which was then called the Dhaka Stadium, in the pre-independence period where many legends of the game graced the venue. Bangladesh's Test journey also began here in November 2000 against India.

It is only the second cricket stadium after Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which hosted the first ever Test between England and Australia in 1877, to host the inaugural Test of two nations.

Other than Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim, none of the other cricketers present at the BNS yesterday have ever played at the venue. Even Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur's experience is quite limited, with the former playing here in a domestic tournament back in 2004 and the latter taking part in some age-level cricket.

For Shahriar and the current team manager Nafees Iqbal, however, memories of their playing days at the venue came rushing back once they stepped out on the field.

Nafees' lone Test century came at the venue in 2004, when he batted almost eight hours for his 121, which ensured a draw for Bangladesh against Zimbabwe and, in the process, their maiden Test series win. Shahriar, on the other hand, never played an international game at the venue but had played many domestic matches here. He still remembered which gate of the venue would be shut down if there was a risk of a fan riot after a heated match at the club level.

"My domestic career began here. The pivotal innings of my career, the century for the Under-19 team, came here," said the former Bangladesh team opener.
Cricket's return to BNS, even if it was for just one morning, happened because of the newly appointed strength and conditioning coach of the Bangladesh team, Nathan Kiely.

The Australian coach wanted to assess the fitness levels of the cricketers and felt that having them run 1600m on an athletics track was the best way to achieve it.

The 35 cricketers were divided into two groups for the run. Pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib won in one group while his fellow pacer Nahid Rana easily won in the second one and did the iconic Usain Bolt pose after his win to the raucous applause of his teammates.

Mahmudullah, the eldest of the bunch, came last but the 38-year-old received cheers from everyone as he crossed the finish line. The second oldest of the bunch, the 36-year-old Mushfiqur, however, outran many of the youngsters and finished the race behind Tanzim.

Bangladesh Cricket Board trainer Iftekharul Islam said that the race was a way to assess the fitness level of the cricketers ahead of a busy schedule, where the national team is set to play at least 29 matches across three formats in the next seven months.

Shakib Al Hasan, who is in the USA and Mustafizur Rahman, who is busy in the Indian Premier League, could not be a part of the session while Soumya Sarkar, Taijul Islam and Taskin Ahmed were absent due to injury.

Bangladesh star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said he preferred to make short-term plans rather than long-term ones, considering that the 37-year-old is in the twilight of his career.  

Shakib left for the USA earlier today to take part in the upcoming season of Major League Cricket, starting on July 6. He will play for the Los Angeles Knight Riders and will then make the journey across the border to play for Bangla Tigers Mississauga in the Global T20 in Canada which will begin on July 25.

Following the back-to-back franchise tournaments, Shakib will be expected to return to national colours in August when Bangladesh will tour Pakistan for a two-match Test series.

"I haven't really planned much. And I don't really have that much time to plan for three-four years. I think that it is good to plan for three months, or six months. So up until now, my planning goes as far as the Pakistan series," Shakib told reporters at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport before leaving for the USA on Tuesday.

"I don't have a plan regarding myself. At this moment, I'm looking forward to the two T20 tournaments, one is Major League Cricket for which I'm heading to the USA followed by the Global T20 League in Canada. I'll play these back-to-back tournaments and then will see where things are. After that, there is the Test series against Pakistan. So, my planning is about these three competitions."

Shakib has been going through a lean patch with both bat and ball. While his batting has left a lot to be desired in the past two ICC events (the 2023 ODI World Cup and 2020 T20 World Cup), his ability to strike with the ball, which has rarely come into question throughout his career, has taken a nosedive. 

In an abysmal campaign in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, Shakib managed just 111 runs in seven matches at a strike-rate of 106.73. He did score a fifty against the Netherlands in their Super 8 run in the tournament but that was all that one would remember from his campaign. With the ball, he picked up three wickets at an economy rate of 7.50 and it was not until Bangladesh's fourth match of the group-stage against Nepal that the left-arm spinner was able to register his first wicket. He took two in the match and scalped one in a Super 8 fixture against India meaning he went wicketless in five matches in the major event. 

The interesting part about Shakib's statement was that he was not particularly keen on long-term plans and it won't be a surprise if he is picky when deciding which matches to play in the upcoming series. There have been a few instances in which Shakib has opted out of Tests in the recent past. Moreover, his sporadic absences have often left the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) struggling to explain the reasoning behind his unavailability. So, BCB would have a hard time planning ahead with Shakib in the mix but the loop of the board chasing the Bangladesh star for his availability may very well continue.