The peak of an era

It may not be an overstatement if it is said that one can get an insight of Bangladesh's ascendency in Test cricket if they go look at the two stalwarts' -- Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal -- development and progress over the past ten years.

It would be unwise to underestimate the efforts of their predecessors as many little things from them paved the way for today's golden generation of Bangladesh cricketers. And the new generation never misses the chance to recall the contributions of their predecessors, with Shakib Al Hasan expressing his gratitude to and admiration for Mohammad Rafique and Abdur Razzak, mentioning the former as his idol.

Still, the fact that the new era of Bangladesh cricket has seen its growth coincide with the development of these two big names in Bangladesh cricket is no coincidence.

"There were good cricketers in our country before them but they are great cricketers. It's not like they began their career with greatness; they improved themselves gradually to take their performance, as well as Bangladesh's performance, to new heights," observed former national captain Habibul Bashar, who saw them at close quarters as a player during their formative years.

Shakib made his debut against India at Chittagong in May 2007 and he had not done anything special, while Tamim Iqbal entered the Test fold in January the next year with some sparkling performances in New Zealand.

Since then they have achieved many feats and these two players have a sense of competitiveness of the highest note, which has only benefited Bangladesh cricket.

"You will get all the stats to know what they have done in the middle so far but the most important thing is that these two players are a class apart because of their ambition to be compared to the best players in the world. Their hunger for success is unmatchable and they have developed a professional mindset which separates the current generation of cricketers from previous cricketers," opined Bashar.

The world saw the best advertisement for all those qualities during the first Test against Australia at Mirpur. What Shakib did with bat and ball might have taken the spotlight onto him on the fourth day, but Tamim's pair of great knocks in trying conditions demands the highest attention.

One must accept that the historic win against Australia was the result of the achievements of Bangladesh's two best players'.

Shakib and Tamim complimented each others' efforts. Shakib valued his friend and competitor's knocks highly, while Tamim said: "I was not surprised at all about what Shakib did because I know him. I could only be surprised had it been done by a newcomer."

Yes, there was no point in being surprised by both of these special performances; it just showed how deadly their combined efforts could be for any opponent. They also gave evidence of being at the peak of their powers and will only give more evidence for the historians who will examine the books about the Shakib-Tamim era.