The Bangladesh Test Captain Mushfiqur Rahim and the Board President Nazmul Hasan aired publicly their differences over the former's media interview following the Team's humiliating whitewash in the two-Test series against South Africa. The Captain was emotional in the face of criticisms hurled at him. Thus after the Bloemfontein Test, he said: "When the team does really well, all the credit goes to the management and when we are not doing really well, all the blame comes to the captain. I can take it." That had upset the President leading to the public exchanges that should have been handled in private.
However, Mushfiq was under the scanner for his leadership that had left a lot to be desired. His decision to field in the Potchefstroom Test when everybody knew it was a batsmen's paradise was a very poor one. That he repeated the same folly in the Second Test, where the pitch was as placid though a little bouncier, was bewildering.
If ever a Captain's mistake with the toss had sent his Team on a leather chase, then Mushfiq's decisions at Potchefstroom and Bloemfontein were two that should head the list. Instead, if Mushfiq had opted to bat in the first Test, his batsmen could have scored, if they had set their minds to it, a total close to 400 and perhaps more judging by how easily they had scored 320, and for a good period brilliantly, batting second and facing 296 just to save the follow-on. That would have made the First Test a totally different ball game and even competitive. That did not happen and when the South Africans gave the Bangladesh Team 423 to chase with time, not a factor, the Bangladesh batsmen fell like nine pins for 90! That exposed some serious problems in the batting techniques of the Bangladesh Test batsmen and their temperament.
In writing about the scores of 147 and 174 in the Bloemfontein Test that followed the 90 in the First Test, Bangladesh cricket scribes and commentators were in denial about these problems. Instead, they blamed the bouncy pitches and Bangladesh batsmen's lack of familiarity with such pitches as the main reasons for their disastrous batting and defeats. They also felt that the short stature of most of the Bangladesh batsmen was another serious problem in playing the short rising ball. These are only prima facie reasons that on examination do not stand to serious scrutiny.
Test cricket is played on all sorts of pitches. No one can be called a proper Test batsman unless he can play on all kinds of pitches. Therefore, Bangladesh's batting disaster should not be blamed on the pitches. Even these defences would stand on thin ice when a few facts were considered. The pitches were bouncy to make batting difficult only while the ball was new and hard. That was perhaps an hour after which the danger from the bounce vanished. That was evident the way Momin, Mahmudullah, the Captain himself and Shabbir batted after the bouncing nature had sniffed Kayes and Liton. They had taken the score close to saving the follow-on at 292/5. They were batting easily, fluently and had the South African captain worried.
It was then the South Africans took the second new ball. To sensible Test batsmen worried with the wicket's bounce, the new ball should have called for caution. Instead, Mahmudullah fell to the first ball with the new one; playing a ball going out that he tried to cut and dragged to his wicket. Soon afterward, Shabbir under-edged a ball from Oliver to his stumps, a ball going out that he should have left alone. And soon from 292/5 Bangladesh was all out for 320 giving South Africa a huge 176 runs lead, a difficult predicament from which it did not come out. In the next three innings, the Bangladesh batsmen failed miserably basically because of their flawed batting techniques and their batsmen's lack of temperament and not really the bouncy pitches that the cricket scribes blamed as the main reason for Bangladesh's batting disaster.
The Bangladesh batsmen also lack something without which a cricketer cannot be a Test batsman; the ability to defend. And those that guide the team, the Coach, for instance, have never tried to tell them that Test cricket is not just about scoring boundaries; or scoring at a fast rate and that sometimes, in fact often, spending an hour or so scoring a few runs could be more useful to the Team than blasting a half-century in no time at all. The Bangladesh Team should have watched the South African openers, especially Elgar and taken a few lessons; that Test cricket is played over 5 days and for Test batsmen, there is never any hurry to catch the train. Unfortunately, the Bangladesh batsmen play Test cricket with the one-day mentality like their train would leave any moment and with the belief that quality batsmen are those that can score boundaries and score runs at a fast pace.
That was only a part of their problem. Another major one that proved fatal in South Africa's bouncy pitches was what Sunil Gavaskar called the tendency of playing "kharay kharay" shots. The Bangladesh batsmen simply remained firm in the crease and played the "kharay kharay" way with little footwork. On a pitch with even bounce, such a strategy often brings runs and at times, aplenty. But such an approach also exposes batsmen to dangers of edging balls to the keeper and the slips. That had happened more often to the Bangladesh batsmen in South Africa than balls bouncing and coming to the bodies leading to edges to the close-in fielders.
And Gavaskar, who in his times batted without the helmet, played some of the most brilliant innings against legendary fast bowlers using his short height to good use. He judged the short-pitched balls early, went on the back foot and played the balls or left them at will. The Bangladesh batsmen seldom went on their back foot to the rising balls. They thus lost critical time to play them appropriately. Thus the balls hit them painfully and frequently, affecting their courage to bat properly. Mushfiq had a close brush with serious danger when he failed to keep his eyes on the fast, rising ball and ducked while stranded in the crease.
Thus Bangladesh Team's humiliation in the Tests in South Africa was due to their batsmen's shortcomings in batting, some so serious that it is a wonder that no one had focused on them earlier and it was not due to the bouncy pitches as the Bangladesh cricket scribes and commentators had suggested. It is time to send the Bangladesh Test batsmen, even the so-called superstars, to the coaching camps to overcome those shortcomings, particularly to correct their tendency to play "kharay kharay" shots and to learn the ways to defend. And competent psychologists should be appointed to work with the Team to correct their poor temperament.
The South African tour also underlined serious shortcomings in the bowling department of the Bangladesh Test Team. They took 13 wickets in the two Tests conceding 1316 runs at 101.2 a wicket!
All the above notwithstanding, the Captain was also not correct when he said that when the Team does well, the management takes the credit. He forgot what happened to him and his teammates after their victory against the Australians in the Dhaka Test. The management did not get any of those gifts that were showered on them. Maybe they took a little credit but the Captain was way off the mark with the remark that "all the credit goes to the management" when they play really well. He should also be reminded how Shakib Al Hasan duped the Board to stay away from the Test tour aware that the Team would be humiliated using the lame excuse of sabbatical that the Board should not have given him but obliged because of his superstar status.
The writer is a former Ambassador.
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