Adoring cricket enthusiasts of Bangladesh from all over the world got shocked and frustrated the way the team meekly surrendered to South Africa in the Durban test. Set to score 274 on a gripping and turning last day’s wicket batting collapsed to 53 all out. Dreams got dashed and on the contrary, earned disgrace of the lowest ever innings score of the venue. Earlier India had that ignominious record of 64 in 1984. Bangladesh however narrowly escaped their lowest ever test score 43 that they did against West Indies on tour. Whatever be the case Durban wicket was not that minefield for Bangladesh capitulating to 53. Definitely, Bangladesh failed to apply themselves falling like pack of cards. Two spinners Keshav Maharaj (7/32) and Simmon Harmer (3/21) starting the proceeding and finishing the innings bowling unchanged for 19 overs set a new milestone. This was unheard of for Kingsmead Durban cricket ground, Anyway, Bangladesh is now trailing (0-1) behind 9in two matches test series. It desperately needs bouncing back in the Port Elizabeth test staring on 8 April. We believe Bangladesh has potential for doing that.
What Went Wrong?
Bangladesh think tank definitely misread the wicket. Winning the toss and letting home team bat first was a suicidal mistake. Perhaps grassy wicket and overcast condition misguided them. Durban wicket traditionally assists both pace and spin. Team think tank should have guessed that with top pace attack now in IPL 2022 home team would rather let spinners take control. They had two genuine spinners in their team. Bangladesh on the other hand made genuine mistake in ignoring test specialist Taijul Islam. Could not agree at all with Habibul Bashar that playing with 4 specialist bowlers and 7 +1 batsmen was a smart decision. As it turned out that when 7 batsmen cannot perform 8 also cannot deliver. The mindset was poor. It was really pathetic that Bangladesh could not exploit the opportunity of a second grade South African team without 8 first choice players and lose heavily by 220 runs.
We had several positives as well. Joy was a revelation. 4 men-bowling unit took 20 wickets is not giving away too many runs. We must build on these. 
[photo collected]
For the second test, return of Tamim would be a huge bonus. But at the same time unavailability of Taskin and Shoriful would hurt. Bangladesh must play with 5 genuine bowlers. We are sure Mominul and Mushfique are too good batsmen not to bounce back. Bangladesh may include Sohidul in place of Taskin and find space for Taijul. There must be a plan in place for winning the test and squaring the series. Bitter memories of Durban must be forgotten as a bad dream. Not much talk should be there about umpiring. Sledging is a part of professional sport. Bangladeshis must act as experienced professionals.
My suggested team would be
Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haq, Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton K Das, Mehedi Hasan Miraj, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Khaled Ahmed and Sohidul Islam.
BDST: 1152 HRS, APR 06, 2022
SMS
