Another series win awaits Bangladesh in misty Sylhet leaving captain Shan Masood atop narrow terrain

ICC World Test Championship

Bangladesh find themselves in an unfamiliar territory leading a Test match series against Pakistan only for the second time since collecting their first home victory over their neighboring country in the longest format. After winning the last series between these two nations 2-0 in 2024, Bangladesh has completed a hat-trick of wins turning the tables around against their arch-rivals after enduring one-side dominance for a long time. However, in Mirpur Najmul Hossain Shanto's side looked like a confident team, sure of their plans and hungry to get the winning taste continuing their recent ascend in red-ball cricket. 

Years of underperformance in Test cricket prompted a strategic change in their playing style, the catalyst of which came in the face of a fast-bowling resurgence. Over the past few years, BCB has invested heavily on training and preparing quality fast bowlers, giving them ample exposure of International cricket and assisting them by preparing helpful wickets. The seeds of this investment first bore fruition when Bangladesh stunned the world by securing a 8 wicket victory against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui, thanks to Ebadot Hossain's 6-wicket haul in the second innings. The next big result came against Pakistan when Hasan Mahmud and Nahid Rana combine to take 9 wickets in the second innings at Rawalpindi helping Bangladesh secure an away 2-0 series victory and followed it up with another overseas victory in West Indies where Nahid Rana took his first fifer. This does not mean there spinners have not had a big say in their recent rise but there has definitely been a decent improvement in the playing surfaces, example being last week in Mirpur where both Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Nahid Rana took a five-wicket haul as their spinner and pacers split the 20 wickets equally.

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The pitch is Sylhet is giving a similar energy as the current images signal abundant green covering. Bangladesh will have to make once definite change as opener Shadman Islam who is ruled out because of a chest injury after the ball stuck him hard on the chest in slips when he took the catch of Salman Ali Agha in the second innings of Mirpur Test. Ideally the back-up opener Tanzid Hasan Tamim should take his place but there are reports that Tamim is also nursing some fitness issues forcing the hosts to call up Zakir Hasan who averages 23.72 from the 13 Tests he has played so far. The management might look to bring Shoriful Islam in place of Ebadot Hossain after a wicketless outing in the last game propelled his bowling average above 50 in Tests. The 6'3 feet tall Shoriful, who played his last Test in Nov 2024 has taken 26 wickets in 12 Test matches offering a left-arm angle and adding further variety to the well-rounded bowling attack of Bangladesh.

Pakistan's issues lie deeper than they look on the surface. They have now lost 6 straight Test matches on the road after their last win in 2023 against Sri Lanka at Colombo. An 8-point over-rate penalty from the first Test now leaves them languishing at the second-last spot in the WTC rankings. Captain Shan Masood has now lost 11 out of the 15 Test he has captained winning only one series against England at home in 2024. Shan now holds the worst losing percentage of 73.33% among captains who have led Pakistan in a minimum of 5 Tests. He averages 33.24 with the bat as captain which is marginally better than his overall career average of 30.12 in 45 Tests. As a captain, Shan looks like an under-confident figure in the field who always waits for things to happen rather than being proactive to force the issue. 

Unfortunately, Shan is not the only culprit in this whole facade. Pakistan has gone through numerous coaching changes in the past few years and the selectors always opt for completely different players in every new red-ball series especially in the fast-bowling department. Under Masood's leadership, Pakistan have tried 16 different bowling options including 10 fast-bowling options, some of whom have been given a run of just one or two series before being discarded for new talents or the same old under-performing options. Their fast bowlers average over 35 in the last 15 Tests as compared to spinners who average 27.9. Shaheen Shah Afridi who seems to have lost his touch as a red-ball bowler has taken 21 wickets @ 40.9 in his last 7 Tests, Naseem Shah 9 wickets @ 42.55 in 3 Tests and Hasan Ali 6 wickets @ 56.16 in 4 Tests during this tenure. 

Pakistan needs to create a long-term plan where they build their bowling attack around a bowler like Mohammad Abbas or Khurram Shahzad, identify another skiddy hit-the-deck bowler, and groom a few young genuine fast bowlers in the domestic circuit who can add genuine variety to their bowling attack, which is a need of the hour in present day's International cricketing landscape. 

The batting also presents a gloomy picture with the side averaging a meagre 24.73 in the last 15 Test matches. Babar Azam's wretched run adds to the ongoing struggle as he has now gone 30 innings without a triple figure score. Only Mohammad Rizwan with his obvious technical flaws has scored over 1000 runs averaged over 40 in this period but the recent performance of their debutants Azan Awais and Abdullah Fazal does add a slight hope given the management does not run out of patience like they did with Kamran Ghulam, Saim Ayub and Muhammad Hurraira. It will be interesting to see what changes they make for the next game. With Babar announced fit, whom does he replace? Will one of the debutants go out? Does the management drop Shaheen Shah Afridi and replace him with Khurram Shahzad? Will Sajid Khan, who took a 12-fer at Mirpur in 2021 come into the side? Lastly, will they opt to bowl again after the defeat at Mirpur?

All the build-up towards the final test of the series might turn into a glum mood as rain is expected to washout most of the morning and afternoon session on all five days leaving a tiny chance of any result. There were a few suggestions to stage the second Tests in Mirpur as well but BCB categorically denied them and confirmed the match will take place at the Sylhet International cricket stadium. The ground has hosted a total of 5 Test matches with the teams electing to bat first four times. Chasing team has won only one game here. Spinners average less than 25 taking 110 wickets as opposed to 69 wickets @ 30.43 for the pacers. The ground has seen only two 400+ team totals. Monimul Haque is the highest scorer at Sylhet and captain Shanto loves to bat on this ground with 2 centuries under his name. Taijul and Mehidy lead the wickets tally with 31 and 22 respectively. Nahid Rana has also taken 11 wickets in 3 games but goes at 5.29 per over.  

References: Statsguru by ESPNCricinfo