Bangladesh look to reverse Test lows against top-notch South Africa in Chittagong

After the euphoria of one-day series win at home against three of the top Test-playing nations, Bangladesh get down to real business Tuesday in the first of the two Tests against South Africa at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong.

There is no doubt that the ODI victories against Pakistan, India and the Proteas were well-deserved and Bangladesh showed maturity to evolved into a force to reckon with in the shorter version of the game.
 
But the same cannot be said about them when it comes to Test cricket. The Tigers have only seven wins to show for in the 91 Tests they have played so far – five against Zimbabwe and two against West Indies – while 13 ended in draws.
 
So, 71 losses and 36 of them were innings defeats.
 
The question that naturally comes to mind is why has the Test team not been able to achieve the success in the 15 years since it attained Test status on June 26, 2000 and played its first ever Test match against India at Dhaka in November that year?
 
There is no doubt that there have been some remarkable personal achievements and these have to be duly recognised and appreciated. For example, recently in the Khulna Test against Pakistan, Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes shared an opening wicket partnership of 312 runs, individually scoring 206 and 150 runs respectively.
 
No mean feat by any standard. But as a Test-playing nation, are Bangladesh moving anywhere? The statistics do speak for themselves.
 
There is massive interest in cricket in Bangladesh and there is a similarly huge expectation about the national team. Every time the fans leave the grounds disappointed, they come back again hoping that things would improve this time around.
 
But, the big question is – have things improved as far as Test cricket is concerned? There is a phenomenal amount of money in cricket but the standard is just mediocre.
 

There is a reason for this type of cricket to be called ‘Test’, where midgame and time rule, and if the team cannot compete with the top teams and languish at the bottom of the ladder, then a real soul-searching needs to be done.

Coming to the game in hand, the pace attack of the visitors has been strengthened with the arrival of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel. The Proteas do have a strong and experienced batting line up as well.

The pitch is more likely to be batting friendly and the team batting first will look to post a big total as later on, the pitch would take spin. The Bangladeshi spinners, especially Shakib Al Hasan and Taijul Islam, could then get purchase.

Winning the toss and getting a big score on the board would be useful for the home team as batting in the earlier stages of the game would be that much easier.

There is a gulf of difference between the two sides with the South Africans sitting pretty at the top of Test rankings while Bangladesh are flagging at the ninth spot amongst the 10 Test-playing nations. Therefore, even a draw in this match would be quite rewarding for Bangladesh.

The batsmen need to resist the temptation to play hasty shots and must learn to play session by session in a Test match. As one expert quipped, you let go more balls than you actually play in Test cricket.

Bangladeshi batsmen must show that patience in shot selection to mount any challenge.

Hopefully, the confidence that has been oozing out of the team after the recent success in ODIs will rub off on the Test team as well.

It is time for Bangladesh to replicate the achievements and thrive at the highest level of international cricket and meet some of the expectations of the millions of fans of the cricket-crazy nation.

(The writer is a senior journalist presently based in Chittagong)