The Bangladesh national team reached Chittagong yesterday with an unchanged squad from the first Test against Sri Lanka. The home side will take on the visitors in the second Test starting from February 4 at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium followed by the two-match Twenty20 series on February 12 and 14 respectively.
Bangladesh’s poor performance in the first Test, where they were thrashed by an innings and 248 runs in little more than three days, was a disappointment for the cricket crazy fans of the country and at the same time a shocker for the side which was flying high for their consistent performance over the last one and half year.
The margin of loss, added with non-stop speculation on the proposed two-tier Test system, has further made it an inconvenient defeat, particularly when all the talk is about the country’s future in Test cricket.
Picking three quickies in the playing eleven in the first Test was also highly criticized as the wicket at Mirpur is not known to be helpful to fast bowlers. They seamers were economical but they failed to produce what was expected off them – breakthroughs.
However, lesson has been learnt and at least two changes are expected in the final line up for the second Test.
The number three position since the days of Habibul Bashar, a current member of the national selection panel, has been on offer to several but none could seal the place. The latest being Marshal Ayub, but the right-hander who has been very impressive in the domestic arena at that position is yet to show his caliber in the big stage. 19 runs from two innings in Dhaka could see Marshal make way for Imrul Kayes, who returned to the Tigers fold after a fruitful Dhaka Premier League and Bangladesh Cricket League.
Kayes has earlier opened the innings in both international and domestic matches but his recent achievement in the number three position in the domestic leagues earned him a place back in the Test squad. Despite a poor outing for new vice-captain Tamim Iqbal in the first Test, the Chittagong lad will be opening the innings along with Shamsur Rahman who made his Test debut in last match.
Veteran left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak is the other likely change as it was learnt that the selectors will shred one off the three seamers from the Dhaka Test and feed in an extra spinner.
Both the teams will start their Chittagong phase attending their first practice session today.
Source: UNBConnect
