Yes, it was a Bangladesh miracle. I must admit that I never really rated Bangladesh as a cricketing nation. Infact, I am among those who wanted Bangladesh to stop playing Tests altogether and concentrate on white-ball cricket alone. To be fair, I didn’t come to that conclusion with evidence. Bangladesh despite being drafted into playing Test cricket in 1996, almost 30 years down the line, has not shown the kind of consistency that is required at this level. There were far too many losses including against lesser experienced sides like Afghanistan.
The Bangladesh past
Every time they threatened to turn a corner, they have gone back several steps. One can only imagine the frustration level of the Bangladesh supporters. In white-ball cricket, the rot is even deeper. Bangladesh is a cricket crazy nation. Just look at the number of spectators who turn up to watch the game, albeit, ODI or T20, one will know that there is potential in that country. However, for some reason, they just couldn’t make it count at the highest level. One can only hope that the series win in Pakistan will propel them towards higher levels of performance.
The series win against Pakistan in Pakistan is something Bangladesh will cherish for a very longtime. This is their first series win outside of their soil against a decent opponent. Yes, there was the series win in the West Indies about 15 years ago but the West Indies side of that series was so poor that even a league team in Tamil Nadu could have defeated them. Bangladesh must not consider that as their first series win outside of home. This win will certainly rank among the best they have achieved although, the win at Mount Maunganui in New Zealand is on a slightly higher pedestal because New Zealand is a far tougher opponent than Pakistan.
The standout performers for Bangladesh
Having said that, a series win will always be special. Especially, if it is away from home though it is still within Asia. There were a lot of good things to say about the performance of Bangladesh in this series as there were nothing to say about Pakistan. If the innings of Mushfiqur Rahim in the first Test was brilliant, the innings of Litton Das in the second Test was sublime. It will be difficult to place one above the other because both of them were match-winning hundreds. These two are the most dependable batsmen in Afghanistan though Shakib Hassan has played a few good innings. Litton Das, after years of promise is finally starting to fulfil his promise. He is got immense potential. His potential is so rich that he can easily walk into any of the higher ranked teams without any problem.
Mehidy Hassan Miraz, another cricketer who is busy rewriting records. In the company of Litton Das, he went about resurrecting the Bangladeshi first innings and followed it up with an impressive haul of 5 wickets. He is well and truly a replacement for Shakib Hassan. Bangladesh has also witnessed the emergence of a genuine fast bowler in Nahid Rana. Capable of bowling at 150KMPH, he hustled the Pakistan batsmen who were stunned by the pace he generated. They would not have expected this from a Bangladesh bowler and probably was caught off-guard. Others chipped in with vital contributions every now and then thus making this a complete team effort.
No standout performer in Pakistan
The same cannot be said about Pakistan. Not even a single player stood up to be counted. The bowlers threatened for a brief while in the 2nd Test but couldn’t finish the job. The batsmen, the less said the better. Rizwan scored a find hundred but could not do much in the next 4 innings. Pakistan also made the blunder of declaring when they were below 450 with 4 wickets in hand. Call it arrogance or lack of confidence on the ability of the lower order, they must have carried on with the innings. It was a needless declaration. Shan Masood, the captain, must take the blame for it. During the last Ashes, Ben Stokes made a similar blunder and ended up losing the Test. It was arrogance then and it was arrogance now.
“In the batting department, and not just in this series, we need to improve in the second innings,” Masood said. “We tend to collapse quite frequently,” said Shan Masood.
As for Babar Azam, it really is shocking to think that this is the same Babar who was compared to Virat Kohli. Kohli who has scored runs everywhere in the world against Babar who hasn’t. Usually, Babar scores tons of runs against the likes of Bangladesh but this time around, he was found wanting. His fanatic fans will admit that Babar is not a match for Kohli. His record against the major nations is pretty weak to be considered among the greats of the game.
Wrapping up a Bangladesh miracle
Rameez Raja, who was extremely critical after Pakistan lost the first Test, I wonder whether he would have experienced a complete meltdown after the surrender of the series. Not just Rameez, every former Pakistan cricketer, will be aghast at the performance. Credit where credit is due but Pakistan wasn’t expected to lose both the Tests and at home at that.