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Bangladesh Pace Attack

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Focus rarely shifts to a Bangladeshi fast bowling corp, but with a tour of New Zealand (3 ODIs and 3 Tests) and the World Cup less than 5 months away, Bangladesh's seamers will need to step up.

With the injury to Taskin, the uncapped Ebadat Hossain gets a maiden call up for the Test squad. Sylhet natives are excited because for years our local team has been the worst domestic side in Bangladesh. I think across all formats, Sylhet has only won a domestic championship once. For the first time, 3 Sylheti fast bowlers (Ebadat, Abu Jayed, and Khaled Ahmed) will make a Bangladesh squad.

The following is my summary of the current BD pace attack:

Mustafizur Rahman (left arm fast medium, height: 5'11", hometown: Khulna)

Everyone knows the Fizz by now. Canny bowler with an action that resembles that of Mohammad Amir, but a totally different type of bowler. Has lost a bit of pace recently, but can still clock up to 140 during most of his spells. His reliance on various cutters might hamper his effectiveness in Tests outside Asia, but in ODIs he has proven to be one of the best in the world going around (73 wickets at 20 with an economy rate of just 4.58 runs per over). He is the undisputed leader of the attack.

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (right arm fast medium, height: 6'1", hometown: Khulna)

This man is now entering the 19th year of his international career after no fewer than 7 operations. A true bagher bachcha (Bengali for "son of a Tiger") he is the most inspirational man and captain Bangladesh have ever had and is now a sitting Member of Parliament as well, representing his native Narail district in Khulna. Although he has refused to give a precise timetable, it is widely expected he will retire from cricket at the conclusion of the World Cup. Bangladesh may never see such a strong cricketer ever again. He is now reduced to being a 120 kph trundler, but knows his game well and uses his vast experience to remain an effective 4th bowler for his side.

Rubel Hossain (right arm fast medium, height: 5'9", hometown: Khulna)

The most experienced of the quicks, apart from Mashrafe. He has struggled of late. When on song, he can be a lethal death bowler, but he's had a horror show in the recent past. If he can get back to his best form, Bangladesh will feel much more confident about their chances in England this summer.

Abu Jayed Chowdhury (right arm medium fast, height: 5'8", hometown: Sylhet)

The slowest bowler in Bangladesh's arsenal but almost surely the most gifted swing bowler the country has produced. Generally bowls around a gentle 130 kph pace, but can move the ball consistently through the air. At this moment classed as a Test specialist, he impressed during the abysmal tour of the Caribbean last summer with 7 wickets and could enjoy the conditions in New Zealand.

Syed Khaled Ahmed (right arm fast medium, height: 6'2", hometown: Sylhet)

Although a fellow Sylheti, I was not at all a fan of this guy as I was under the impression that he was just another 5'8" 125 kph trundler. Myself being 5'8" tall, I don't hold that against anyone personally (lol), but that is not what a fast bowler should look like. Khaled has a decent action and run up, has a bit of pace, clocking up to 141 on his debut Test and has no glaring weaknesses. Despite ending his debut wicketless, he did produce 3 or 4 genuine chances and looks like a fairly good prospect for Bangladesh. It is very rare to see a Bangladesh fast bowler getting a 10 wicket haul in a domestic first class game, but Khaled did just that at the end of the last NCL season, paving the way for his Test debut against Zimbabwe late last year.

Ebadat Hossain Chowdhury (right arm fast, height: 6'1", hometown: Sylhet)

A bit of bad luck for Taskin Ahmed got Ebadat a belated call up to the Test team. Has an action and physique almost identical to Brett Lee, only about 10 kph slower. Hits the deck hard, consistently bowling above the 140 kph mark he is widely suspected of being amongst the quickest bowlers in the country. Like his fellow Sylhet Division teammate, Khaled, Ebadat also recently took a landmark 10 wicket haul in first class cricket and coupled with figures of 4-17 in the last BPL match, proved impossible to ignore for the selectors.

Abu Hider (left arm medium fast, height: 5'11")

Pegged as a LOI specialist as of now, he will feel hard done by after being dropped (unfairly IMO) from the squad for the NZ tour. I believe he is a must for the World Cup with his ability to swing the new ball, bowl yorkers at the death, and generally outsmart the opposition. All in all we have the ingredients for a well balanced attack in the not too distant future I hope. Fizz provides guile and variation, Jayed is a swing bowler, Khaled and Ebadat offer a bit of pace and bounce.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
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I like Abu Jayed so I was surprised they dropped him after the 1st Test v Zimbabwe, imo he’ll be their best bowler in the tests.

The Fizz is an ODI for me, he’s had a good start to his test career against South Africa but personally from what I’ve seen he needs either the batsman to be going after him ( why he’s a great limited overs bowler ) or he needs a 5th day pitch deteriorating to take wickets. I guess being a Bangladeshi fast bowler makes it no surprise he enjoys conditions that suit spinners as well. I doubt he’ll be effective in NZ (Tests)

Khaled Ahmed has the tools so he might end ok, will struggle this tour, Rubel shouldn’t be anywhere near the test side, has a good ODI record tbf.

You know my feelings about Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, love that guy such a warrior or tiger what ever you like to call him, could easily see him going down the Imran Khan route becoming President.

Don’t know much about the rest, what happened to Robiul Islam? He killed Zimbabwe in 2013
ZCF OriginalZCF Hall of Famer
Robiul has disappeared sadly. He would have been handy in overseas Tests but the selectors just forgot about him after a few series. He hasn’t even made any noise at the domestic level. He’s also 30 plus, which means the selectors won’t even bother looking at him even if he performs.

We have had a lot of turnover in fast bowling. Al Amin, Taskin, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Shubhashish Roy are just some of the guys who played Tests and are now gone. Taskin has made a comeback, but IMO he did nothing to warrant selection. The new coach Steve Rhodes prefers tall quicks with some pace (a philosophy I heavily agree with) and that probably explains the selection of the 6’2” Taskin. However, people have been sayin he’s lost pace bowling at just 135 now (I’ve seen a couple of his BPL deliveries and both were around 140 so IDK how true that is).

But it is shocking that Fizz is our most experienced Test bowler and he has all of 12 caps or so. Jayed has just 3, Khaled 1, and Ebadat 0. So our pacers go into the NZ series with a combined total of 16 caps. That is how many Tests England plays in an average calendar year!

At any rate, I would hope this group plays well enough to get a long run but they have to take wickets for that to occur. No one expects much from these guys, but maybe that’s a good thing given how guys like Taskin massively failed to live up to the hype.

I would like to see the Test attack consist of the 3 ethnic Sylhetis (Jayed, Ebadat, and Khaled) but I suspect Ebadat will not get a chance till the 3rd Test with Fizz starting over him due to reputation alone.
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Robiul Islam just announced his retirement from all formats of cricket.

Apparently, Hathurasinghe was key behind his demise similar to how he blacklisted Mominul (Mominul hit just 1 century from 33 innings under Hathu, but has 7 from just 29 innings under all other coaches).
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As expected very poor numbers for the BD pace attack coming out of the NZ ODI series, granted most sides especially from Asia struggle with their seamers in NZ but the BD guys were really off the pace.

The Fizz was the only guy to take multiple wickets but he went for more than a run a ball, whilst Mash was pretty economical going for under 5 runs per over, but only 1 wicket to show.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... ype=series

Lets see how they go in the Tests
ZCF OriginalZCF Hall of Famer
Seamers getting a thrashing in Hamilton so far. The real fault goes to the batsmen for not getting to at least 400 (still a woefully underpar score on this track). But with hacks like Liton, Mithun, Soumya, and Mahmudullah its impossible to get a half decent score.

But the initial spells from the seamers was pretty good.

Jayed was bowling around 132 kph and was spot on with his accuracy and kept swinging the ball into the left handers. I'm not sure if he can swing it the other way as of yet (the in-swinger to a RHB), but he does have a ball that goes straight on with the arm. Raval in particular had several leaves where the ball came within a couple inches of the stumps.

Ebadat was the quickest of the lot, though slower than I thought. I only watched a few overs, but he was hovering around the 138-139 mark. Not sure if he got any close to 145. He did get Raval to chase away from his body on his 2nd ball, edging to the slips, only to have Soumya put down a fairly straigthforward chance.

Khaled bowled a good line and length right around 135 clicks. Does occaisionally get some good bounce given his height. Not as impressive as Jayed or Ebadat, but as a workhorse who maintains a line and length, he could still offer more value than guys like Taskin or Rubel who neither take wickets nor stem the flow of easy runs.
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Toothless away from home

Not surprised they’ve hid the Fizz
ZCF OriginalZCF Hall of Famer
With the standard of our fielders Wasim Akram would have barely taken 100 wickets.

Apart from that, this is a very flat wicket. Don’t let the grass fool you. The real question should be why the batsman failed when Tamim scored a run a ball hundred.

The seamers also need to keep hitting the right areas and not get disheartened afTer a bad match or two.
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Maiden wicket for Ebadat with Wagner having a slog. Hope he gets a few more.

I really am starting to feel that Fizz should be kept solely as LOI specialist given his skillset and tendency to get injured. Jayed and Ebadat are probably the best longer version seamers we have. Khaled could be if he just played a holding role but he has been the most expensive of the lot so far as well as the only one who hasn’t beaten the bat.
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Mehidy not looking threatening nor keeping it tight, again backs my point he’s only useful on a dust bowl where the pitch does all the work.

As you’ve mentioned before Kriterion it would actually be of benefit for Bangladesh to ‘pay their own way’ if needed to tour Zimbabwe for an extended test series. Sure Zimbabwe aren’t the same as NZ or South Africa, but at least their players will be able to find their grove in foreign conditions without being slaughtered like they have been.

The bowlers aren’t learning anything here today
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Look at it what ever way you like Kriterion but there’s only one way you can look at Mehidy’s stats, horrible in NZ & South Africa only useful on the sub-continent and the Caribbean where conditions are in his favour.
ZCF OriginalZCF Hall of Famer
I want to see that leg spinner back in, who terrorised Zimbabwe in the 2014 series.
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Bangladesh pace attack again getting pasted on a green deck, the Fizz going at over 5 an over. Jayed unlucky he's had Taylor dropped a few times, been the pick of the bowlers, Taijurl doing a better job than Mehidy
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I think it’s a stretch to say Jayed and Edadat have our bowled Boult and Southee
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Yes look bowling well miss chances are things you don't see on a scorecard but looking at the cold hard stats it's hard to say the Bangladeshi bowlers have out bowled anyone

Boult has 13 pegs @21, although he has gone at 4 an over

Southee has been average with 7 @40 and I think it's clear to see Tim is starting to slow down, the World Cup will be interesting to see how he goes if he plays much at all.

The best of the Bangas is Jayed (as I predicted) with 3 wickets @65, had a few chances dropped the poor bugger but still bowled plenty of dross

The rest have been s**t house

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... ype=series

Granted the Kiwi batting lineup has been really good but that's what you get when you go overseas you'll bowl to batsman in conditions they are suited to and like, same as when Zimbabwe spinners tour Bangladesh.

Also remember the Kiwi guys have come across a red hot Tamin Iqbal, he's been top shelf this series, he's the reason their economy rates are so high.

Yes if Shakib & Mushy were there the batting would have been much stronger and you could possibly have played an extra seamer or batsman with the spin of Shakib (You guys are f***ed when he retires btw) but there are still so many glaring issues that still remain, and to your credit you've identified them.

Catching - might be the worst in world

Batting - Mominul can't buy a run out of the sub-continent, for a guy who's done so well at home he should be doing much better. Liton Das is a guy who I really like but he needs to be dropped, so many failures now he can't find the middle of the bat.

Bowling - Both seam and spin the BD guys can't find away to be effective unless it's a dust bowl, until they can they'll continue to get flogged overseas.

Losing this Test is very embarrassing IMO they only had to last three days and lost it in just over 2 really.
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Don’t tell me Kriterion tell the coaches/selectors

Definitely left out by choice not injury
ZCF OriginalZCF Hall of Famer
Southee is bang average in ODIs. He's not terrible. But if Henry or Ferguson or even Milne can do better...but Southee is still a top class Test bowler.

I do think the ODI game has now evolved to a point where bowler's economy rates should be the primary determinant of class rather than average. Because nowadays ODIs are all about scoring 300 and chasing 300 in order to win.

Its weird though that Milne has disappeared.
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Whether or not you rate him in ODI cricket is irrelevant in this case, the NZ selectors/coaching staff have started leaving him out of sides, which even as little as 6 months ago would seem inconceivable.

You’re very good at finding little points to argue about to intentionally or unintentionally (I’m not sure) defer from the main subject.
ZCF OriginalZCF Hall of Famer

jaybro wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2019 11:10 pm

Whether or not you rate him in ODI cricket is irrelevant in this case, the NZ selectors/coaching staff have started leaving him out of sides, which even as little as 6 months ago would seem inconceivable.

You’re very good at finding little points to argue about to intentionally or unintentionally (I’m not sure) defer from the main subject.


I'm not rating him in ODI cricket though. I'm just saying he has a 34 average in ODIs and being dropped is not a sign of him waning. Being dropped is a sign of him having a 34 average, which for a team like NZ is very mediocre.

The point is, Southee must have been dropped for a strategic reason in the Pakistan Tests. Why? Because 13 wickets at an average of 17 doesn't indicate that he's slowing down. Why? Because his average in the last 3 years is under 28, and under his overall career average.

Yes, its a little point, but its your little point. I didn't bring up Southee (to my recollection). You must have mentioned it to relate to the main subject of the thread, hence, if I can refute it, I refute your main point.
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At any rate, NZ tour has been called off!

Disappointing end to a disappointing tour. Alas...
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