In the second Test match against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh went back to their tried-and-true formula of a twisting track. It raised the question of whether, having handing out such a surface, Bangladesh had advanced one step while regressing two.
In Chattogram, the inclusion of three spinners in the starting lineup instead of a pace bowler seemed to indicate that Bangladesh had turned back to its traditional methods in an attempt to restore its reputation. This came after the tourists humiliated the hosts in the first Test match by defeating them and giving Zimbabwe their first Test win in more than three years.
The win over Zimbabwe broke Bangladesh’s six-match home losing record, and it was the result of a tried-and-true strategy the hosts had previously employed: setting up wickets to help spinners demoralize the opposition.
Many in Bangladesh’s cricket community questioned whether switching back to three spinners in their most recent Test match against Zimbabwe instead of other cricketing powerhouses was the right decision, despite the fact that Bangladesh’s pace attack is thought to be getting stronger by the day. Habibul Bashar, a former national selector, did not hold back from venting his dissatisfaction.
“I hope it’s just a one-off Test match (in Chattogram) probably we needed to win a Test match and we are thinking in that direction,” Habibul told Cricbuzz.
“It’s very important how we are thinking and we all know that if we prepare wickets like this against Zimbabwe, we will win but we were coming out of a concept (over dependency on spinners) and I feel we don’t need to play with this mindset (playing with three spinners in wickets assisting slow bowlers) against lowly ranked team.
“I think its fine when we go for this formula against teams like South Africa or Australia because against them we need to take home advantage and it is quite normal as other Test playing nations like India and others also do the same,” he said.
“But there is a question mark about our performance abroad, which is a fact and we were trying to make our batters adapt in bouncy wickets and what I feel is that the first Test match we just couldn’t do it but for that (losing the opening Test on a sporting wicket) if we think in this manner it is wrong,” he said.
Mohammad Salahuddin, the senior assistant coach for Bangladesh, maintained that using three spinners was mostly a tactical choice.
“We know from history that the pitches are mostly batting-friendly in Chattogram. Moreover, the hot weather rarely assists the pacers, so we went on with two of them. As you can see, we played with three pacers recently, but it is the only exceptional case, because we already know that they won’t get enough assistance. Even, Zimbabwe started the match with an extra spinner in place of a pacer,” said Salahuddin.
“We bowled well in the second Test. Even if we could do the same in Sylhet, we would have won the match. Neither our pacers did well in the first Test, nor the spinners. In Chattogram, our bowlers- both pacers and spinners- were patient in the first innings to pick up wickets,” he said.
“There was not much turn for the spinners, as you can observe, Taijul picked most of his wickets by beating in flight. The bowlers did an excellent job in the first innings, stopping the flow of scoring to get breakthroughs. If anyone assumes that we succeeded due to the turning nature of the pitch, it would be wrong,” he said.
“We still have full confidence in our pacers. But after playing BPL and DPL, their pace decreased a bit. Proper training can help them regain that pace. Going forward or backward doesn’t solely depend on this decision. Only one or two top level results do not determine the direction of your cricket. We have to pass a lot of hurdles, as we have so many limitations,” he concluded.
