Bangladesh were given a dose of their own medicine by Test newbies Afghanistan at Chattogram on what was purported to be a minefield for batsmen. Opting to bat first, Afghanistan put up a total of 342 and then outspun Bangladesh’s all-spin attack with some excellent bowling by new skipper Rashid Khan.
Having already hit a half-century with the bat, Rashid came out to make light work of Bangladesh’s middle order with a spell of 4/47. Rashid left Bangladesh reeling after Shakib Al Hasan was also trapped in front of the wicket. Mossadek Hossain and Taijul Islam led their recovery but at 194/8, Bangladesh aren’t a happy lot.
They hoped the wicket would turn and went into the Test match with an all-spin attack much like they did at Dhaka in their previous Test at home last year against the Windies. Then, spinners accounted for 27 of the 30 wickets to fall and Bangladesh won easily by an innings.
This time, though, the plan has backfired so far and they face a threatening proposition – of batting last against Afghanistan’s own plethora of spinners.
“We didn’t expect to play on this wicket, so the situation became difficult for us,” Shakib said. “We got the complete opposite of what we expected from the wicket. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t do well here. Good teams are those who can answer questions outside the box. We will try to give those answers.
“It is definitely disappointing, but there’s no point talking about it. We need to find a way to come back from this situation, which is more important. Seeing our XI you can all figure out what type of pitch we expected. But I wouldn’t call the wicket unplayable because of the way Mosaddek and Taijul batted, but we could have applied ourselves better. They proved that it is possible to stay at the crease and also score runs. I think we could have scored more runs had we applied ourselves better.”
Bangladesh has been a haven for spinners in Tests in recent times. Since 2015 and before this Test, spinners had accounted for 350 wickets at 29.35 while pacers took 104 wickets at 34.66. Taijul Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, Nayeem Hasan and Mehidy Hasan has been the spin quartet that Bangladesh have dished out against visitors on the dust-laden wickets.
Afghanistan have countered this with a quartet of their own. Rashid Khan, Zahir Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Qais Ahmed have had Bangladesh batsmen in a tangle so far. If they do go on to restrict Bangladesh to a low total and get a decent lead, the hosts have a tough task negating this spin quartet. With three spinners – including one left-armer – in there, Afghanistan have been more attacking and it has worked on the flat wicket.
“The difference is that they have wristspinners, we have fingerspinners. Nabi bhai took two wickets but our fingerspinners took all ten wickets. Their wristspinners were more effective, and without one on a flat wicket, it was difficult for us,” Shakib said.
He realises that the task only gets tougher for them.
“We have to bowl really well, which teams have done in the past in the second innings. Our bowlers have to do something magical, after which we have to depend on our batsmen,” he said.