The Chittagong Test ended in a draw, only 219 overs of play was possible out of a possible 540 overs. India went into the Test with nothing to gain and everything to lose. A fight put on by Bangladesh would have reflected poorly on India and the Indian captain’s tactical acumen. The perception that this was somehow a “win or else…. ” series for India, in the immediate aftermath of the World Cup is hard to dismiss.
Add to that, we had an already rookie (albeit promising – Munaf and Sreesanth are good bowlers) Test bowling attack further depleted – first by injuries to Sreesanth and Munaf, and later by illness to Anil Kumble during the match – which a prescient Team management had accounted for by picking 5 bowlers. If you look further at the Indian side, it might have been hard to determine whether it was India or Bangladesh who were the minnows. A makeshift opening combination – where the specialist opener got a pair, a pace attack where the established first team bowler bowled rubbish and one of the fill in bowlers bowled superbly. It would be safe to say that the Test squad was in disarray – thanks to selection, injuries and form and a traditionally weak pace attack.
And yet, India were able to declare twice in the game – which just goes to show what a mismatch it was against an upstart opponent. Bangladesh are at a peculiar stage in their development. They have seen glimpses of what their future can be and stray elements of their team – like Mortaza and the impressive Shakibul Hassan promise a great deal. Yet, on the other hand, they are on the whole a very weak side and the self-belief/arrogance on display from the likes of Mohammad Ashraful (an under performing disaster if there ever was one) means that they are currently sprawled across the chasm between the wannabe Test team and the actual Test teams. The young Shahadat Hossain seems to have the ability and the attitude worthy of a pace bowler, and indeed in this game, new ball bowling was the one area where Bangladesh might have infact enjoyed an edge over India. Of course, this was masked, and masked effectively, because Mortaza and Shahadat came up against Tendulkar and co., while the Indian pace attack was able to scalp Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful and co. The contest is hard to describe, because it is hard to identify in the first place. The Indian batting seemed to play within itself, and the team selection betrayed a patched up Test team (that was a job well done).
In terms of the numbers – Tendulkar and Ganguly helped themselves to runs, and in Tendulkar’s batting one sensed a little bit of the certainty which has been apparent since the overseas leg of the 2006-07 season began in South Africa. He is such a superb player – a master – that it is hard not to sit up wondering what he might achieve in England later this year. Hopefully, the flurry of injuries are a thing of the past – the vice-captaincy should help him get back that edge which seemed to be missing in his play. He is now clearly one of the elder statesmen in the game and his demeanor on the field betrays it. Ganguly made runs, but if you watched those last 20 runs that he made on the third day against Shahadat and Mashrafe, full of desperate pull shots and bobbing and weaving….. culminating in that involuntary 100th run, before he was dismissed trying to pull – it is hard not to wonder he might just be the tonic Steve Harmison needs to return back to his best form. I can’t see England trying to dismiss him outside the off stump. It is easy to picture the field – 2 slips, gully, cover point, a cover (squarish), a short leg, a backward short leg, a squarish mid-wicket and a fine-leg placed for the skied hook/pull. There will be no mid-on and no mid-off, because there will be little in Ganguly’s good length area. With Ganguly’s inability to push a single to save himself, he will have to wear a lot of the bowling to score any significant runs. But, with his runs in SA and now the Chittagong hundred, he can’t be dropped and he has no choice but to face the music. What Ganguly can look forward to in England is Monty Panesar and the expectation that spin will come to the fore more than usual in the late summer this year. Dinesh Karthik will open the batting for India at Lord’s. He is being persisted with, and he has done enough to merit atleast 3-4 more Test matches.
Mashrafe bin Mortaza would walk into any Test team in the World bar Australia and a full strength England. Thats how good he is – he looks like he was born to be a sportsman and has a terrific ability to think things through as was evident during his expert handling of Ramesh Powar’s teasing offbreaks. It was not until Tendulkar came along and he and his partner couldn’t read the googlies that one felt he looked vulnerable. The wicketkeeper Mashud has a disastrous come back and i wonder why Mushfiqur Rahim is still sitting on the sidelines in the Test team. Ashraful is the most talented batsman in Bangladesh and has the skill to go with his talent but somehow you don’t feel that he will make too many runs consistently – the occasional great innings – sure. Habibul Bashar is going to retire after this series and Bangladesh will have a new team management, what with Whatmore retiring as well. Bashar and Whatmore have been good for Bangladesh and hopefully the next management will complete their journey into to league of the top Test playing teams in the world.
For now though, the current Bangladesh squad have one more Test to play against the current Indian squad.
). Batsmen who “dominate” are super talented, near geniuses (Lara, Tendulkar, Ponting), while “gritty” batsmen are less gifted, “making the most of their talent” (Dravid, Steve Waugh, Chanderpaul). This classification is false in my view, because it seeks to place cricketers into straitjackets which Cricket as a sport does not yield to too happily.