Bangladesh gears up for toughest job in world
Image : Cricfrenzy
||CF Correspondent ||
The first Test between Bangladesh and India, starting in Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore from November 14, will be the former’s first match in the World Test Championship game.
Bangladesh shifted their focus to the two-match Test series against India following a disappointing outing in T20 series in which they squandered a golden chance to beat the hosts, despite dominating most of the part of the series-deciding third match.
But in their first match, Bangladesh is set to give a stern Test as playing in India, was one of the toughest job for any team in the world. The hosts have recently whitewashed South Africa in three-match series, including an innings margin victory in the last two Tests.
While the visitors earlier were scared about how to deal with the spinners, in recent years, the rise of the Indian pacers was astonishing. In fact India’s pacers got more wickets, be it at home or abroad, than the spinners in the last two years and now considered as one of the most formidable pace attack in the cricket’s history.
The fact That India’s bowling is their weakest link is now the distant past. Their batting was always their strongest link and it remains so with the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane continuing to demolish any bowling attack in the world. And add Rohit Sharma, who seemed to have found his mojo in Test cricket. Rohit’s Test average at home however is more than the average of the greatest batsman of the cricket history Don Bradman.
Apparently this Indian side who remains unbeaten in World Test Championship so far has no weak link. Bangladesh seemed to have practical with this fact as they focused on their strong link rather than searching India’s weakness.
“We are focusing on our strong link rather than searching India’s weak link. We know no teams in the world can do survive easily in India’s soil. But we are trying as to how we can do well here,” said Bangladesh middle order batsman Mohammad Mithun.
While in last Test series in India, South Africa’s bowlers took just 25 India wickets in three Test matches, India’s bowlers grabbed all the available 60 South African wickets. That was the testament of India’s batting and bowling strength.
As a batsman Mithun know how tough it would be to deal with the India’s bowlers. Therefore keeping aside those fear factor, Mithun stresses on working hard to play well in India.
“There is no way that you can take any of their five bowlers lightly. All of their five bowlers are champion bowlers. So you will be wrong if you think that I will target one or two bowlers and play others with caution. If we want to do well, we have to take all those five bowlers seriously,” Mithun added.
However amid all difficulties, Mithun believes there will be hope still if they can be disciplined in their job.
“Any batsman of the world can get out if you can create pressure. If we can be disciplined as a bowling unit, I believe, anything is possible.”
“Test cricket is all about playing session by session. Our focus should be to do well and win every session. If we can win more session than them, anything is possible.”
“If we look back, no one gave it a thought that we would win a T20 match, that too on India soil. But we have the belief on our ability. Whatever the situation is, every time we get down the field, we try to win the match. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t happen. We are disappointed that we lost the last T20 match despite coming close. We still are disappointed but now our full concentration on Test series,” Mithun concluded.
