Nabid Yeasin

For a long time, Bangladesh have been struggling to find the blueprint for a Test culture with a suitable mindset and approach towards the game’s elite format. In fact, even in the 21st year of their Test journey, Bangladesh are unfortunately yet to take a single step in the right direction in this regard.

The Tigers could potentially set the tone for their approach towards upcoming Test hurdles in the lone Test against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club today. Although the fixture is not a part of the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC), it could still be Bangladesh’s first step towards making amends for mistakes in previous editions of the competition, due to which they were left sulking at the bottom of the table with no wins and one draw from seven games.

The fact that the game against Zimbabwe is not a part of the WTC could well work in the Tigers’ favor as they prepare for upcoming WTC commitments. A win must be the sole target but with little at stake in terms of the outcome, this could be the perfect opportunity to figure out what has caused Bangladesh to lose focus at crucial junctures on their previous WTC journey, resulting in unexpected defeats.

Complacency had clearly gotten the better of Mominul Haque’s troops as they lost 2-0 at home to a depleted West Indies side earlier this year, with the Tigers failing to salvage even a single point despite the opportunity to enter the top five in the WTC standings. That equation may also have impacted the unexpected outcome.

As is the case before nearly every series, there has been talk of playing a particular ‘brand of cricket’, ‘keeping the process right’ or ‘having patience’ ahead of the Harare Test as well. Although the team management has never been able to clear any ambiguity surrounding these statements, it is about time at least some of their ploys bear fruit and set a standard and approach for the future as well.

That could start with the team management relaying a set of objectives to each player about the role they are expected to play while putting up the right man for the right job and not making short-sighted changes tailor-made to the purposes of one fixture only.

In his ninth match in charge of the Test squad, Mominul should also go into the game with a lot of lessons learned from mistakes made in previous fixtures. When things are not going his way, Mominul should now know better than to stick to the usual and instead surprise the opposition by thinking outside the box, something that he failed to do during the Chattogram Test against the West Indies.

While the team management and the skipper may agree on a coherent approach towards the format, players also need to adopt specific mindsets regarding how each of them wants to approach the game instead of ‘maintaining the right channels’ as the bowlers often say when asked about their plans regarding a game.

HIGHLIGHTS

**Bangladesh played two Tests during their last tour of Zimbabwe in 2013. Tigers suffered a thumping 335-run defeat in the opening Test before salvaging some pride in the final Test with a 143-run win. Both Tests were played at Harare Sports Club.

**The average first innings total in the last three Tests in Harare was 325 runs.

**Zimbabwe lost the last two Tests against Pakistan and managed to draw a Test against Sri Lanka in the last three Tests played in Harare.