Bangladesh has yet another opportunity to show its character and commitment in the second and last test of the two test series against West Indies scheduled to start tomorrow at St Lucia. This will be incidentally the 500 th test that West Indies will play after graduating to this level in 1928. The match will be played at Beausejour Cricket Ground.

Bangladesh lost the first test at ST Vincent by 10 wickets. Bangladesh will return home after this test and prepare for the Asian Games Cricket and later play Zimbabwe at home. With nothing much exciting to write about Bangladesh performance in the West Indies tour so far, Bangladesh gets another opportunity to give a good account of them in the test.

Before the test series started Farhad Tito a leading sports journalist of yester years now living at Canada posted a comment in his Facebook. His Jamaican colleague talked about a possible keener contest between Bangladesh and West Indies in the test series .According to him “West Indies is not the best and Bangladesh is not the worst test team now.” But in the first test the only contest was in the fielding to prove which team is the worse among the two in fielding. In batting and bowling West Indies proved much superior making it almost a no contest. The wicket was flat and if batsmen did not want to throw wickets test quality batsmen was very difficult to dislodge.

West Indies being presented batting by Bangladesh skipper put up a solid score of 484/7 in the first innings which was almost enough for them to win the match. Bangladesh made heavy weather while replying and got bundled out for 182 in the first innings. Forced to following on they could just avoid innings defeat scoring over 3000 runs and demonstrating fighting character to some extent. Tamim, Kayes and Mahamudullah made starts .

If one of them could grind and graft longer enough and provide support to skipper Mushfique Bangladesh could create contest and extend the match longer than pre-lunch session of the last day. Yet a fighting century from Mushfique, fifties from Tamim and Mahamudullah saved Bangladesh from the ignominy of innings defeat.  Yet scoring over 300 runs in a test match in fourth and fifth day meant that batsmen may have just started finding their feet. West Indians off course dropped many catches .Had these been held Bangladesh miseries could have been more pronounced.

Now the second test being the milestone of West Indies they may be ruthless and relentless. West Indies will be keen to celebrate the occasion with yet another thumping win and a whitewash of the Tigers. They have seen Bangladesh batting weakness against genuine pace. So in St Lucia Bangladesh may expect four prong pace attack with the introduction of Jason Holder alongside of Roach, Taylor and Gabriel. Question may be asked whether Bangladesh played the spin well.

But Bangladeshi batsmen struggled against Benn as well. Our Bowlers looked pretty ordinary .Debutants bowled well and Taijul got a five wickets haul on his debut .But pacers could not create much of an impression. Moreover, Al Amin got reported for suspect action. Bangladesh desperately needs a much positive strategy in bowling .There must be 5 genuine bowlers – two pacers and two spinners, seven batsmen including an all-rounder.

Judging from the performance of the team so far and resources they have in West Indies now we suggest the following eleven which should appear in the second test Tamim , Shamsur , Mominul, Mushfiqur , Mahamudullah , Mithun Ali, Shubhagato ,Ilyas Sani , Taijul  , Al Amin and Rabiul. There is no point playing with eight batsmen. If seven cannot do much the eight would not add anything. Rather an additional bowler can assist in rotating the attack. Ilyas Sani is bowling well in domestic circuit and many wondered when he was not picked ahead of those who were in West Indain squad.

As has been reported from St Lucia the wicket may be another batting paradise .But in case of Bangladesh type of wicket or quality of opponents bowling hardly matters .Bangladeshi batsmen do not apply themselves.

If they play one good stroke in an over they try to repeat the same again and again not realizing that opposition bowlers play on their nerves and temperament. In test cricket a batsmen needs to choose strokes, learn to leave more than play. In the corridor of uncertainty Bangladeshi batsmen are always vulnerable. We cannot find any reason for persisting with Kayes and Nasir.

They have been given enough opportunity .It will far better giving Mithun Ali an opportunity .He can relieve Mushfique of wicket keeping responsibility as well. Mushfique may have hurt his fingers. Tamim and Shamsur Rahman can open the innings. Tamim must not think a quick fire gay cavalier style half century is enough for him. He is one of the senior professional in the side.It is high time he plays with more responsibility and convert his starts into substantially big innings. Shamsur Rahman should be more patient and choosy about playing strokes.

We are sure Mominul has the quality and temperament to play longer innings. In the first test perhaps he got rough decisions in both innings. He must be relied upon. We would suggest Mushfique bat at number four .He is technically the best batsman in the side and he is in good touch. He has to play the anchors role and hold the innings together. After a while Mahamudullah played well in the second innings.

But when he should have been extra careful he threw away his wicket playing carelessly. It was sad to see Nasir not playing
to his potential. We suggest giving him the shock of dropping from the side. Mithun Ali must be given opportunity for dual purpose .One showing his merit as a batsman and acting as a wicket keeper.

This West Indian attack is not menacing. On unresponsive wickets West Indain bowling is not unplayable for any test team. There are no valid reasons why Bangladesh cannot score over three hundred in both innings and play at eight sessions of the test. If they can Bangladesh can expect to draw the test .That is what is expected of them at this stage. Another defeat, another big loss will serious hurt Bangladesh team morale. Players must take the opportunity to show some character and commitment.

Some ex-players like Atahar Ali Khan and others want Bangladeshis play more test cricket .No one will argue that. But Bangladesh has to earn that .If they fail to prove as a competitive team which country will think of hosting them?  Test cricket these days do not attract crowd. Who will pay money to watch one sided contests? 

The only way Bangladeshi cricketers can develop temperament of longer version cricket if they play more longer version quality cricket matches at home in a better format . Let us keep our fingers crossed expecting a much improved performance of the team at St Lucia where Bangladesh has sweet memories of drawing with full strength West Indies team in the past.

BDST: 1631 HRS, SEP 12, 2014