The Bangladesh national team is gearing up to return to international cricket with their three-Test tour of Sri Lanka in October, which will end around six months of coronavirus-induced down time. The Daily Star has been looking at different departments of their play, and will wrap up the series today with an attempt to analyse the entire squad and selection.
In the 20 years since Bangladesh attained Test status, there have been some shortcomings in Tests on the part of team management when it came to settling on the actual strength of the Tigers, their opponents’ and the conditions, especially in the lead-up to foreign tours.
This is where the selectors will have to be sharp and clear ahead of the Sri Lanka tour, because Sri Lanka is one of only three countries where Bangladesh have away Test wins, alongside Zimbabwe and West Indies.
The selectors are planning to take at least 22 cricketers on tour and whittle that down to a 15- or 17-member squad after playing a few practice matches with the High Performance Squad.
“We will submit the preliminary squad to the board president tomorrow [Tuesday] and it will be announced maybe in a day or two. The 15-member squad will be declared following the camp in Sri Lanka. We are still in discussions with the head coach about the number of players he wants to take in the preliminary squad,” chief selector Minhajul Abedin told The Daily Star.
Keeping the long tour in mind the selectors are planning to have at least six pacers, three wicketkeepers, three spinners, and 10 batsmen in their preliminary 22-member squad. It will be important for head coach Russell Domingo to also assess the pattern and history of Sri Lanka in their recent home Tests as well as Bangladesh’s only Test win against the opponents in 2017 in Colombo, incidentally also the Tigers’ 100th Test. Sri Lankan conditions and pitches generally offer a lot of runs with spinners playing a crucial role with the turning tracks.
According to the report by The Island, SLC was looking at ways to play two Tests at Pallekele as conditions generally suit seamers there more than any other venue in the country. The remaining Test match is likely to be played in Colombo.
Interestingly, the last Test played in Pallekele in 2018 — when England beat the hosts by 57 runs — the Sri Lankan pacers managed to pick just one wicket. A trio of spinners shared the 19 remaining wickets.
It was pretty similar for England as the spinners picked up a majority of the wickets while swing king James Anderson remained wicket-less.
In the previous Pallekele Test, Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav were instrumental in their 171-run win. Then too, the Sri Lankan spinners played the attacking role compared to their pacers on a pitch, which according to the report mentioned, generally suit seamers.
The Sri Lankan chairman of selection talked about a batch of pacers at their disposal. Among the batch are Minod Bhanuka, yet to pick a first-class wicket, Santush Gunathilaka, a 6-feet 2-inch tall pacer who has picked up six first-class wickets, and Asitha Fernando who was wicketless in his only ODI. All three seamers are still waiting for their Test debut.
Apart from Suranga Lakmal the Sri Lankan pace attack does not seem to have enough experience and firepower to threaten Bangladesh, especially on pitches that have helped the spinners over the years and it is hard to accept their stated intention of banking on pacers.
“They will have their plans but at the end of the day it is our duty to cover all sides. Such reports do not affect our decisions. We will be prepared to face both pace and spin. It is not a home series for us so we need to make sure we ready to face any challenge,” Minhajul said.
Having the experience of besting Sri Lanka in a Test on their most recent tour — and seeing the pain and resentment it caused in the island nation’s media then — it will be imperative for the team management to see through any mind games and plan for the tour on their own terms, and not be swayed by talk of pace demons.
