How do you beat the best team in the world? A team that you haven’t played for 23 years on their home turf. Clearly much has to go right. In fact, pretty much everything needs to go right.
As Bangladesh approach the First Test against Australia in Darwin, very little has gone right for the unfamiliar visitors from South Asia. A disastrous warm-up match where they were skittled for 54 by an inexperienced 22-year-old, an injury-enforced absence for their best player (Nahid Rana) and two other significant players (Litton Das and Taijul Islam) returning from injuries of varying magnitude are the most immediate worries for the tourists.
The list of issues grows when longer-term concerns are thrown in; an interchangeable and unproven opening pair of batters, a middle order over reliant on rearguard action from a couple of veterans (Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominal Haque), and a seam attack which is a Taskin Ahmed muscle strain away from being threadbare, despite all the recent noise about the emergence of a pace battery.
Given all of that, you would think that the one thing Bangladesh should be able to get right is positive messaging. “Controlling the controllables” as the dull cliché goes. But even before arriving down under, comments emanating from the Tigers have been unassuming and at times naïve.
Shanto’s mixed messages
Firstly, prior to departing Bangladesh, captain Najmul Hossain Shanto sent out a few mixed messages. In his defence, press conference quotes are always open to being lost in translation, figuratively and literally. Yet his remarks were instructive.
“I think we are very lucky to play Tests in Australia. We should have played more matches there in the last 23 years, although we haven’t done that well in the format. So now that we are going to Australia, I hope that we play good cricket and earn the respect. I am hopeful our competitive nature will earn us another invitation there,” he said.
Shanto seemed to imply that the group selected to play in Australia are lucky, as many others haven’t been able to, because of the long gap in fixtures. Although there’s also an underlying sub-text of not being worthy enough to be granted a tour invitation.
The comments also feed into the narrative that Bangladesh are a team that constantly have to prove themselves, regardless of their recent achievements. Surely, it’s time to move beyond that tired viewpoint. You could argue that Bangladesh have already proved themselves; a recent winning streak of four consecutive Tests and five Test wins in a row at home are evidence of that.
In any case, as an ICC full member for over a quarter of a century, why should Bangladesh have to constantly shed blood, sweat and tears just for another series of matches? We might be miles away from a global cricket utopia, where everyone frequently plays everyone regardless of commercial viability or competitiveness, but there is a middle ground that needs to be explored. By reinforcing old stereotypes, Shanto’s utterances are only doing his team a disservice.
An achievement for Bangladesh?
Perhaps even more odd were Shanto’s comments on the Australia squad. “Normally in Bangladesh cricket, I don’t think I have seen something like this. Usually, teams tend to experiment when they play against us. I would say this is an achievement for our team. They have announced a full-strength squad… it’s clear they haven’t taken us lightly,” the Bangladesh skipper said.
Rather than answering a question about the Australian team make-up with something along the tried and tested line of “whoever they select is their business and not ours”, Shanto delved more into the opposition psyche than was necessary. On the cusp of an unprecedented number of Test matches in the next 12 months and with WTC points at stake, it’s highly likely that Australia were taking a long-term view with selection rather than being remotely bothered about paying Bangladesh a compliment.
If Shanto’s observations have filtered into the Aussie dressing room, they will have undoubtedly been met with bemusement – and that’s exactly the point. Beating Australia is hard enough without reiterating an inferiority complex.
And then yesterday, when Taskin said that he was “honoured” to be playing in Australia, we kind of know what he means but once again it’s just a step away from the “we’re just happy to be here” sentiment.
Realistically, a good outcome for Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay will be to have batted for more than 100 overs in a couple of innings and to have bowled Australia out on one occasion.
Better visiting teams haven’t got close to those goals. If Bangladesh do cause a stir, it will be because they truly believe they can.
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