Bangladesh want to be in big-boy playground
DHAKA: Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has pleaded for more Test matches against cricket’s “big boys” after his side secured their first ever Test win over England with an 108-run victory yesterday.
While their limited-overs side had already savoured victories over top teams, Bangladesh had won just seven of 94 Tests before Sunday – five against minnows Zimbabwe and two against second-string West Indies sides.
“We are getting there, hopefully if we play more tests there will be more good results coming our way,” Mushfiqur said at yesterday’s presentation. “The boys are really eager.
“Hopefully the International Cricket Council and the board will give us a couple more series against the big boys.”
A lack of willing opponents and Test playing opportunities against top nations – the matches against England were their first in 15 months – have compounded their problems.
When they are handed the opportunity to play Test cricket, they often find it difficult to maintain their intensity over five days, which was the case in their narrow 22-run defeat to England in the series opener in Chittagong.
Over the next few months, Bangladesh will play two Tests in New Zealand and one in India.
Mushfiqur said they now needed to adapt to conditions away from home and called yesterday’s victory “a great moment for Bangladesh cricket”.
“In the last two years we’ve played really well in our home conditions and it’s one of our goals to beat every team who come here,” the wicketkeeper-batsman said.
“The next challenge is our overseas (form). We have to adapt really well because you can’t get home conditions everywhere.”
Bangladesh beat England en route to reaching the quarter-finals of the 50-over World Cup for the first time last year, and have scored one-day international victories over India, Pakistan and South Africa during a run of six series wins at home.
A cricket-mad nation of 157 million people, Bangladesh will hope that success can now translate into the longer format of the game and England captain Alastair Cook had encouraging words for the South Asian side.
“You can see their development, specially one-day cricket over the last couple of years,” Cook said.
“Clearly at home they will be a tough side to beat. They have a got a lot of good spinners. It’s not easy for me to say now, but it’s a good win for Bangladesh cricket. Some things maybe they are bigger than one game.”
Next up for Cook is a fivematch Test series in India starting on November 9, on spin-friendly pitches similar to the one England struggled to come to terms with in Dhaka.
“Probably, today, we showed our inexperience in these conditions,” Cook said.
“We’ve got to learn fast, there’s a lot of talent, the experience will help us if we can take things out of it.
“We had our chances here. Yesterday evening we didn’t bowl great and often lost too many wickets early.”
The skipper also pointed out how England had contributed to their own downfall with some uncharacteristic generosity in the field, but backed his team to get back on track.
“When the ball got rolling we couldn’t stop it,” he added. If I’m really honest they shouldn’t have been chasing 270 because we had four or five chances.”
Teenage sensation Mehedi Hasan claimed his second fivewicket haul of the match.
Off-spinner Mehedi took six wickets for the second time in the Test. Mehedi, who took six first-innings wickets and seven in total on debut in Chittagong, once again proved to be England’s nemesis and picked up 6/77 on Sunday for a match haul of 12. – Reuters