25 years on, intent still missing

Come June 26, Bangladesh will be completing its 25 years in Test cricket.

Unfortunately, even with so many years under the belt in the most revered format of the sport, Bangladesh still lack one trait -- the hunger to push for wins, evident in the Tigers' drawn Test against Sri Lanka that finished in Galle yesterday.

Churning out a draw and sharing four points with Sri Lanka, the hosts and a team ranked two places above the ninth-ranked Bangladesh in Tests, might look like a positive way for the Tigers to start their latest World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.

However, if looked closely at the way the Tigers went about their business across the five days of their first Test against the Lankans, a discernible pattern of Bangladesh leaning towards a safety-first approach could be noticed.

Bangladesh began the fifth day on 177 for three with a 187-run lead -- a sizeable advantage that should have made the team management think about at least trying for something other than the ordinary.

But, did they?

Before rain halted proceedings and forced an early Lunch, Bangladesh accumulated 60 runs in 19 overs at just over three runs an over. This makes it apparent that even with the two most in-form batters at the crease -- veteran Mushfiqur Rahim and Najmul Hossain Shanto, both of whom had already scored tons in the first innings, and were batting in the 40s and 80s in the second innings -- Bangladesh chose to stick with the traditional Test-cricket approach of spending time out in the middle.

Winning a Test that has been marred by rain is always a tough ask, but not even considering to even try to achieve it is a mindset that certainly does not go with today's fast-paced modern cricket, where the introduction of WTC has made teams lean towards churning out wins more than ever.

Just as Mushfiqur was dismissed on 49 off 102 deliveries, rain interrupted, and when the game resumed in the second session, Bangladesh batted another 11 overs.

Interestingly, in the first eight overs of these 11, the Tigers managed just 19 runs. 

But since then, Bangladesh suddenly upped the ante, scoring 29 in the next three overs as Shanto completed his century -- becoming the first Bangladeshi captain to score two tons in the same Test -- before eventually declaring at 285 for six.

Shanto said that they did think about declaring early before "sudden rain" forced a "sudden change in plan" for the Tigers. But by the looks of it, the plan probably never included anything other than a draw for the Tigers.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, showed urgency when they had the chance -- scoring at around and over four runs an over for the most part of their first innings, having got the scope to bat on Day 3 of the match.

Just a year back, India showed Bangladesh first-hand what it is like to push for victories in the longest format. India extracted a win against Bangladesh in just 312 deliveries -- the least number of balls faced by any team in two innings of a game against Bangladesh in a winning cause in Tests -- in Kanpur in 2024.

For Bangladesh, going about business how India would in a Test is over ambitious, but what was certainly within their capacity was to at least show the intent, like their opponents Sri Lanka did -- that should be the bare minimum mindset of a side about to complete 25 years in the format.