Taskin Ahmed says Bangladesh felt a pacer short in Sylhet as South Africa tour looms

A team picked at the last moment

The pitch had grass on it the day before and looked dry on the morning, according to CricTracker, so the management backed the extra spinner, kept all three fast bowlers on standby and settled the XI late. Taskin and Hasan Mahmud played. Shoriful Islam and Ebadot Hossain did not.

Taijul Islam, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Nayeem Hasan then bowled 42 overs without a wicket while the two quicks took all four. “When nothing was happening bowling just lengths, we planned to mix the bouncer with the length to confuse the batters,” Taskin said of a day on which the pitch flattened as it went on.

Taskin’s case for the plan, and the catch

“While the pitch might behave one way now, days three, four, and five will be the most crucial days,” he told reporters. That is a fair argument on a pitch expected to wear. West Indies’ answer came from their debutant Kevin Wickham, who said it was “a wicket that you would want to bat once on” and talked of getting to 400.

The catch, as we see it, is who gets the benefit. If West Indies do reach 400, Bangladesh will face a turning pitch in the last innings against the attack that beat them at their own game in Mirpur, where the visiting spinners took 16 wickets to their eight.

“We just don’t have others right now”

The sharper line was about depth. “Sometimes even after performing well you don’t play certain matches because of rotation or workload,” Taskin said. “But the reality is that outside four or five bowlers, we just don’t have others right now.”

The rotation has been real. Shoriful was left out of the Afghanistan Test in Abu Dhabi straight after a seven-wicket haul against Australia, and Taskin himself sat out Mirpur. Bangladesh are also without Nahid, who has missed the Australia series, the Afghanistan Test and this one. “We are missing Nahid Rana. One injury led to another,” Taskin said. A labrum tear has left the first South Africa Test uncertain, a BCB official said.

What happens next

Day two starts on Friday, with the new ball due ten overs in. The Test runs to 9 November, and then come South Africa in Johannesburg and Centurion, where a side relying on four or five bowlers will need all of them fit. We have not seen a Bangladesh squad for that tour yet. The extra pacer was first discussed before this Test, and the conversation looks likely to return.

Market watch

• Wickham’s 400 is a target, not a forecast. The ten overs before the new ball will tell you more about the first-innings total.
• Bowler markets should follow the evidence so far, which is all pace. Taskin’s case for spin only starts to be tested on day three.
• A draw gives West Indies the series 1-0, so a big first innings moves more than one market.

For more, see the latest match predictions and the teams hub.

Top image: Photo: আফতাবুজ্জামান / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons