10 of the Windies top names have decided to skip the tour due to concerns about COVID. No excuse now for BD failing to get a 5-0 sweep :D
That being said, with Gabriel, Roach, and Joseph and Cornwall, Windies have more or less their first string bowling attack. I just hope we don't play on raging turners or a dead wicket with zero carry.
I'm almost sure Mohammad Mithun will be selected, but I sincerely hope he's not in any of the XIs.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
The West Indies are a much better side than they were between 2000 and 2014. They had some shocking series and were picking players simply not good enough.
They have some seriously talented lads playing in this side and they're showing they have some grit and some fight about them.
Mayers is only 28 and should look to cement his spot in the side now.
Braithwaite, Mayers, Da Silva, Bonner, and possibly Blackwood could fit into a full strenght Windies lineup. I guess its not as much of a 2nd string side as it initially looked. Then again chasing 400 to win a Test will make anyone look like a worldbeater.
Braithwaite
Campbell/Hope
Bravo
Bonner
Blackwood
Mayers
Da Silva
Could be their top order moving forward.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
I still think Hetmyr or Pooran should be involved somewhere in the test side. Those boys are serious talents, probably the most talented better in the West indies right now.
The majority of those deliveries were aided by inconsistent turn and/ or bounce, Mehidy got Moeen with a good arm ball and the r/h lbw one was a bad shot, but you can't just look at the wicket taking deliveries either. If a pitch is playing as poorly as that one v England one was the batsman have no confidence that the ball will behave and are very tentative, often it's a bad ball or one that doesn't miss behave that bring the wicket because the batsman is so worried about the ball that's going roll along the ground or spit up at the gloves.
It was like the Zim 1st Test where Raza was bowling some awesome deliveries, but in the end he got wickets off some of his poorer deliveries. That test is a great example for you to look at through 'non-Bangladeshi glasses' That pitch was another slow low deck that got harder to bat on, Zimbabwe had the advantage of batting 1st and bowling last, where batting was at it's hardest. In that final innings Raza and Mavuta looked like Murali & Warne as they bowled BD out to win the test.
Fast forward a week on a better batting deck, Raza and Mavuta went for over 4 an over and took one wicket between them throughout the entire test. The Zim spinners were assisted by the deck at Syhlet but were found wanting at Mirpur when the pitch wasn't weighed in their favour.
The India v Australia series in India 2017 is another good example, the 1st Test India produced a real dust bowl which heavily favoured the spinners, Steve O'Keefe took 12-70 and Australia romped to a massive victory. The next test again favoured the spinners as Nathan Lyon took an 8 for in the 1st Innings, although Australia lost as batting last on such a poor wicket was impossible.
The next two Tests were played on fairly good wickets which had a much better balance between bat & ball, despite batting first in both tests Australia were unable to win either and struggled to bowl India out as the Aussie spinners struggled to cause the Indian players problems on pitches that weren't so favourable to them.
Now Nathan Lyon is a good spinner, I'm not putting him in the 'average bracket' because he has done well against India on all types of wickets, but the morale of the story is, that the worse the pitch is, the better it makes the bowler. It's not rocket science and to be fair is very obvious but some people get carried away with spinners when they taking 5 wickets to win a test on a 5th day rank turner. The good spinners can get it done on any surface, which Mehidy & Taijul have failed to do.
Lyon is one the best spinners in the world. I would say he's right up there with Ashwin and Jadeja, ahead of the likes of Yasir Shah and others. There actually aren't that many Test spinners going around with the resurgence in pace bowling around the world.
The bottom line is the 4 issues I highlighted are things Bangladesh will need to address if they want to get out of the bottom of the Test match table. I am curious to see what the numbers say when you divide Bangladesh's Test record into 3 phases (2000-2012), (2013-2017), and 2017-present. The first period was Bangladesh cutting their teeth at the top level. The second featured a competitive Bangladesh side at home. The most recent is where Bangladesh are stagnating.
2000-2012: 0 wins, 54 losses, 0 draws, batting average 20.93, bowling average 54.58
2013-2017: 3 wins, 11 losses, 8 draws, batting average 31.50, bowling average 49.43
2017-2021: 2 wins***, 6 losses, 1 draw, batting average 23.88, bowling average 54.43
***includes 2 wins vs full strength West Indies in 2018
These numbers indicate Bangladesh's recent problems stem from poor batting.
Bangladesh have to play at least 2 specialist seamers in home Tests. They can still fit in 3 spinners and make pitches that turn on days 4 and 5. But they should make wickets that are good for batting till day 4.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
84-1 at lunch. Not good by the Bangladeshi spinners. Too many wide half trackers.
Additionally, the captain has got to put more close in catchers. There should always be 3 guys at bat-pad and slip with the rest of the 5 fielders saving 1 plus one guy covering the boundary (cover, point, midwicket, mid off, mid on, deep sweeper cover). We are trailing the series and we can't sit back and let them just bat without pressure.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
The majority of those deliveries were aided by inconsistent turn and/ or bounce, Mehidy got Moeen with a good arm ball and the r/h lbw one was a bad shot, but you can't just look at the wicket taking deliveries either. If a pitch is playing as poorly as that one v England one was the batsman have no confidence that the ball will behave and are very tentative, often it's a bad ball or one that doesn't miss behave that bring the wicket because the batsman is so worried about the ball that's going roll along the ground or spit up at the gloves.
It was like the Zim 1st Test where Raza was bowling some awesome deliveries, but in the end he got wickets off some of his poorer deliveries. That test is a great example for you to look at through 'non-Bangladeshi glasses' That pitch was another slow low deck that got harder to bat on, Zimbabwe had the advantage of batting 1st and bowling last, where batting was at it's hardest. In that final innings Raza and Mavuta looked like Murali & Warne as they bowled BD out to win the test.
Fast forward a week on a better batting deck, Raza and Mavuta went for over 4 an over and took one wicket between them throughout the entire test. The Zim spinners were assisted by the deck at Syhlet but were found wanting at Mirpur when the pitch wasn't weighed in their favour.
The India v Australia series in India 2017 is another good example, the 1st Test India produced a real dust bowl which heavily favoured the spinners, Steve O'Keefe took 12-70 and Australia romped to a massive victory. The next test again favoured the spinners as Nathan Lyon took an 8 for in the 1st Innings, although Australia lost as batting last on such a poor wicket was impossible.
The next two Tests were played on fairly good wickets which had a much better balance between bat & ball, despite batting first in both tests Australia were unable to win either and struggled to bowl India out as the Aussie spinners struggled to cause the Indian players problems on pitches that weren't so favourable to them.
Now Nathan Lyon is a good spinner, I'm not putting him in the 'average bracket' because he has done well against India on all types of wickets, but the morale of the story is, that the worse the pitch is, the better it makes the bowler. It's not rocket science and to be fair is very obvious but some people get carried away with spinners when they taking 5 wickets to win a test on a 5th day rank turner. The good spinners can get it done on any surface, which Mehidy & Taijul have failed to do.
Mehidy Miraz is now operating with a slip. Thats it. No short leg or silly point. Just one close in catcher in a match played at home on a "dustbowl". Of course Mehidy or Taijul will struggle in NZ or South Africa bowling to an ODI field.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
I still think Hetmyr or Pooran should be involved somewhere in the test side. Those boys are serious talents, probably the most talented better in the West indies right now.
Yeah Hetmyer for sure. Drop either Hope or even Blackwood.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
Mehidy Miraz is now operating with a slip. Thats it. No short leg or silly point. Just one close in catcher in a match played at home on a "dustbowl". Of course Mehidy or Taijul will struggle in NZ or South Africa bowling to an ODI field.
They wouldn’t be bowling to ODI fields if they were bowling well lol, another point that they’re average spinners that their captains have to set such defensive fields unless the pitch is favouring them
They wouldn’t be bowling to ODI fields if they were bowling well lol, another point that they’re average spinners that their captains have to set such defensive fields unless the pitch is favouring them
Sure, yeah. But even Murali or Warne would struggle bowling with an ODI field. You're going to give up some boundaries in a Test. When a captain has 5 slips he WANTS the batters to drive and if they get a couple of boundaries its part of the plan. Bangladesh play so much 50 over cricket that I think the captains instinctively go to ODI fields and feel that a run rate of 4 is an excellent holding job.
At any rate, 220-5 represents a decent bowling performance here. Spinners bowled much better lines in this innings, with the odd ball turning sharply. Windies scored at 3 an over in the first session, but only at a shade above 2 the rest of the day. The key will be to maintaining that pressure till lunch tomorrow, and Bangladesh should be into the tail.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
In all the doom and gloom forgot to give a shout out to Mominul who crossed 3,000 Test runs in the last game and is now 5th in the Bangladesh run-makers list. Also notched his 10th century to give him the lead on that list.
Averages nearly 42, but only 22 away from home - a record that he is surely aware of. The probable tour of Sri Lanka in April will present him with an opportunity of trying to better that average.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
In all the doom and gloom forgot to give a shout out to Mominul who crossed 3,000 Test runs in the last game and is now 5th in the Bangladesh run-makers list. Also notched his 10th century to give him the lead on that list.
Averages nearly 42, but only 22 away from home - a record that he is surely aware of. The probable tour of Sri Lanka in April will present him with an opportunity of trying to better that average.
Much like his spinners, Mominul is happiest at home on slow low decks, I thought he might do better in NZ where the decks don't have as much bounce or pace as South Africa but he hasn't really done that well there IIRC.
I do enjoy watching him bat in full flight, he's quite a 'pretty' stroke maker, probably my favourite BD batsman to watch in fact along with Liton Das and Souyma Sarker. I will say though there aren't many batsman I've seen struggle as much as Mominul does against the short ball, definitely doesn't like it rearing up at his throat, although not many do I guess
In all the doom and gloom forgot to give a shout out to Mominul who crossed 3,000 Test runs in the last game and is now 5th in the Bangladesh run-makers list. Also notched his 10th century to give him the lead on that list.
Averages nearly 42, but only 22 away from home - a record that he is surely aware of. The probable tour of Sri Lanka in April will present him with an opportunity of trying to better that average.
Much like his spinners, Mominul is happiest at home on slow low decks, I thought he might do better in NZ where the decks don't have as much bounce or pace as South Africa but he hasn't really done that well there IIRC.
I do enjoy watching him bat in full flight, he's quite a 'pretty' stroke maker, probably my favourite BD batsman to watch in fact along with Liton Das and Souyma Sarker. I will say though there aren't many batsman I've seen struggle as much as Mominul does against the short ball, definitely doesn't like it rearing up at his throat, although not many do I guess
Incidentally Mominul did start off decently in both NZ and SA, with half centuries in his first innings in both countries. He's one of the hardest working guys in the side so I expect him to lift his away average to 30 at least.
I do enjoy watching Momin bat, although I rate him behind Mushfiq, Tamim, and Shanto in terms of batting aesthetics. Shanto really looks like a million bucks in Subcontinent conditions at least.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
Shambles by Bangladesh here, their bowling has been average throughout the series and now they’re under the pump. Letting Alzari Joseph score a rapid 80 odd in a test will hurt them.
Going to need a special Mushy innings here to save this test
Got the feeling Bangladesh were counting their chickens before the series and already thinking about collecting a 2-0 series win.
Got the feeling Bangladesh were counting their chickens before the series and already thinking about collecting a 2-0 series win.
Definitely. I thought this would be a walk in the park series. It certainly looked that way the first 4 days of the series. The Windies suddenly flipped a switch on Day 5 in Chattogram. Not something you usually see in cricket.
This is still a good pitch to bat on, but with so few batsmen left, Bangladesh will face a struggle just to avoid the follow on now. All of the dismissals were incredibly soft.
The team think tank is in total disarray in terms of strategy. Mominul was appointed captain on an interim basis, but the problem is neither Shakib nor Mushy want the job, Mahmudullah is not in the squad anymore, and Tamim is as meek a leader as Mominul - so he was the only option which is why he's still got the job. I suspect he won't have it for too much longer if - as is looking likely now - Bangladesh get whitewashed here.
As for the spinners, yes, Taijul, Miraz, and Nayeem are the best spinners in BD. The problem is that they have calibrated their bowling to having Shakib at one end - its now apparent that Shakib is the glue that holds the other spinners together. On top of that, the captain doesn't know how to properly utilize bat pad catchers in subcontinent conditions because of the steady diet of white ball cricket domestically.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
The West Indies performance in this series has been quite pleasing. I hope they stick with a lot of these young guys.
My All-time Zimbabwe XI
Neil Johnson, Brendan Taylor, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), David Houghton, Sean Williams, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Paul Strang, Eddo Brandes, Blessing Muzarabani
The West Indies performance in this series has been quite pleasing. I hope they stick with a lot of these young guys.
They won’t have much of choice. Windies batsmen are even worse than I thought. Chase, Hope, and a couple others average under 30. Blackwood and even Braithwaite are barely above 30. They need Hetmyer.
Mayer’s, Bonner, and Da Silva are solid.
Bangladesh cricket fanatic, observer of all others.
They won’t have much of choice. Windies batsmen are even worse than I thought. Chase, Hope, and a couple others average under 30. Blackwood and even Braithwaite are barely above 30. They need Hetmyer.
Mayer’s, Bonner, and Da Silva are solid.
Da Silva definitely looks a solid prospect
Bonner also doing well, but looking at his career first class average which was 22 before this series!!!! That suggests he’s unlikely to continue at this rate.
Mayers as well has performed out of his skin, again his numbers suggest he will be a ‘flash in the pan’
Maybe the reason these guys with poor first class records are doing so well in this test series is because the bowling isn’t actually that good?