Photo: Firoz Ahmed
Liton Das really enjoyed his captaincy stint. After all, it is not commonplace in Test matches in Bangladesh that one might find five fielders at the slip cordon. Just throw the ball to a pacer, wait for them to create pressure with a nagging length and then expose a batter’s technique. Liton felt he had that freedom and also enjoyed wicketkeeping on a track with carry for pacers.
“I enjoyed captaincy. The way the bowlers supported especially. From behind the wicket, I saw how the bowlers got the ball to carry with balls going to slip. It was fun to keep. As a captain, it’s a good feeling that there is a chance of getting wickets at any time,” Liton said at the press conference yesterday.
A big conversation in this just-concluded one-off Test was whether Bangladesh would be willing to give their pacers a suitable hunting ground against Afghanistan given that the Tigers always went with spin to secure home advantage.
The wicket had enough for pacers and spinners in the end, making it a sporting wicket. For so long, the conversation had been about banking on spinners at home. But under Chandika Hathurusingha this time, the Tigers are showing a revitalised mindset in terms of focusing on their tactics by analysing where the opponents’ weaknesses lie.
For a long time, pace had been a weakness. The pacers’ resurgence now gives the team management more options at home. So, for the first time, a green wicket allowed pacers to discover optimism in home surfaces. 14 wickets were taken by the Bangladesh pace trio in the one-off Test, the highest number of wickets taken by Bangladesh in a Test at Mirpur.
Since Afghanistan’s strengths lay with their spin unit and their weakness was batting against quality pace, the decision was an easy one. Liton was asked whether these kinds of wickets with help for pacers would be a top option now.
“It depends on who we are playing. It’s not like we will only play on spinning turfs or only seaming wickets. It depends on who we are playing and their strengths and weaknesses. What people say about home advantage, that’s what we will be thinking about,” he said.
“Obviously when we will go to New Zealand, they won’t play three spinners because their weapon is pace bowling. The same way, when a team comes to Asia, for instance in India, they build spinning wickets. When you enter a championship where you need to win, you can take benefits of different kinds,” he added.
Hathurusingha has been able to pinpoint the need for pacers to also be able to get help in home conditions so as to strengthen them for away tours. Choosing what qualities to prioritise in the side by analysing the opponents is a mark of Test teams that get success continuously.
The 546-run win, the third-biggest Test win ever in world cricket, is a statement win in terms of going forward with Test plans for the future.
“We want to play on good wickets so that both sides are there and to ensure that not only spin will only dominate or vice versa. Look at this wicket, there was help for the spinners here. In future it will be decided,” Liton said.
