Tigers happy with warm-up preparation

Bangladesh pacer Ebadot Hossain believes that their three-day warm-up match against Windies President XI was a perfect preparation ahead of their two-match Test series against the Caribbean’s starting on June 16 in Antigua. 

The lone warm-up match between Bangladesh and the President’s XI ended in a draw at the Coolidge Cricket Ground on Sunday. ‘We played a three-day warm-up game that ended today [Sunday]. It was a superb preparation for everybody before the Test series,’ said Ebadot through a video message provided by the BCB after the match. Opener Tamim Iqbal made an unbeaten 162 in their first innings, guiding his side to declare their first innings on 310-7. However, Tamim didn’t bat in the second innings as Mahmudul Hasan Joy and former Test skipper Mominul Haque started the second innings for the Tigers. Mominul, who was dismissed for a duck in the first innings, continued his poor form with the bat as he only scored four runs before being run out. In the second inning, Bangladesh posted 47-1 before the match was called tied.  ‘Our batsmen batted well. Tamim bhai scored over 150 while Shanto [Nazmul Hossain] made a fifty. Our batsmen played really well.’

Mustafizur Rahman’s three-wicket was the bright spot for the visitors on day three as the left-arm pacer scalped three wickets in only six overs giving away just 34 runs. Ebadot also bagged three wickets the day before as the President’s XI posted 359-8 before declaring their first innings.  ‘The bowlers had a good start too, Mustafiz joined today [Sunday] and scalped two wickets in his first over and got another later on. In terms of preparation, we have really enjoyed this three-day match,’ Ebadot added. Meanwhile, lower middle-order batsman Yasir Ali, who retired hurt for 11 after he sustaining a back stiffness, couldn’t resume his innings and that raised uncertainty over his participation in the first Test. Bangladesh national team selector Habibul Bashar told the media that the southpaw was not yet ruled out of the Test. ‘There is an uncertainty regarding the availability of Yasir Ali, however he has not been ruled out yet.’

Will Shakib’s captaincy solve Tigers’ DRS problems

Technological advancement has aided all forms of sports worldwide. While the introduction of the Decision Review System (DRS) has seen the rate of errors made in matches drop down significantly and also provided a clarity to players and viewers alike, its effectiveness still depends highly on the refined decision-making from the cricketers out on the field. And in modern cricket, the three DRS calls allocated in Test cricket to each of the teams go a long way in almost determining the outcome of a game. Apart from the usual cricketing issues, the one other thing that Bangladesh have struggled with in recent times, especially in Tests, is their inability to make proper use of the DRS.

To put things into perspective, Bangladesh have seen a total of 10 unsuccessful reviews in their recent-most two-Test series against Sri Lanka while getting only six reviews upheld successfully. In the series before that, away to South Africa, Bangladesh saw a total of 12 unsuccessful reviews against six successful ones in the two-match Test series. Even in the preceding away Test series against New Zealand in January this year, Bangladesh had 11 reviews turned down while seeing only five reviews being successful. Interestingly, it was in the first Test in Mount Maunganui in which the Tigers clinched a historic eight-wicket victory that they saw a total of eight reviews turned down.