Bangladesh will wrap up their campaign of the 2023-2025 ICC Test Championship cycle with the second Test against the hosts West Indies, which is beginning at the Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica today.聽
The match is scheduled to begin at 9:00pm Bangladesh Standard Time.
Bangladesh鈥檚 hope of Test championship final is long gone due to their five consecutive defeats ahead of their final Test in Jamaica.
Bangladesh began their championship cycle with a win over New Zealand, securing their first-ever win against the Kiwis at home in Sylhet in December 2023.
There were some equations on how the Tigers could reach the final following their historic clean sweep over hosts Pakistan in August-September 2024.
The unfortunate losing streak of Bangladesh began then as they conceded defeats to India, South Africa, and the West Indies in this championship cycle.
The margins were huge; they even lost to India in Kanpur in just over five sessions.
The latest came at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua last week, when a weakened Bangladesh side proved to be a mismatch to their Caribbean counterparts as they lost by 201 runs.聽
Bangladesh have been suffering mainly from two problems - batting and bowling against the lower order. These two were evident against the West Indies in the first Test.聽
In the first innings, the West Indies were at 261-7, but Bangladesh鈥檚 bowlers failed to capitalise. A maiden century from all-rounder Justin Greaves helped the West Indies post a total of 450-9 before declaring.
Since 2021, there have been 18 instances where a team has scored at least 200 runs for the last four wickets. The highest three times each happened against Bangladesh and England.聽
While the bowlers performed decently in the second innings in Antigua, as they skittle the opposition at 152 to give them an unlikely chance of winning.聽
But the batters couldn鈥檛 find any philosopher鈥檚 stone as there were only two fifties across the two innings.聽
Openers Mahmudul Hasan and Zakir Hasan did not perform well, and middle-order batter Shahadat Hossain has yet to make a significant impact.
Senior players Mominul Haque and Liton Das, stepping up in the absence of Mushfiqur Rahim and Najmul Hossain, started well but couldn鈥檛 go big.
Bangladesh, in fact, has seen only four centuries in 11 matches so far in the Test Championship cycle. Three of them came in three Tests that they won; one was in a losing cause.聽
The lack of substantial partnerships has also been detrimental, with only five hundred-run partnerships in this cycle. But none of them came from the first five wickets, with three of them being at seven and one at nine.聽
Mehidy Hasan Miraz, the stand-in captain for Bangladesh, also admitted the fact after the first match.
鈥業f we built partnerships of 100-150 runs, then the scenario could鈥檝e been different鈥�, said Mehidy.
Bangladesh played with three seamers in Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, and Hasan Mahmud with two spinners in Mehidy and Taijul Islam. Taskin bagged his maiden fifer in the match, with others contributing.聽
Apart from the failure to deliver the killer blow in the first innings, the bowlers did their job. The batters, particularly those in the top order, must take responsibility, if Bangladesh hope to conclude their journey in this cycle鈥檚 Test Championship on a high note.
