1st Test - Bangladesh v England - 20-24th October 2016
Result - England won lost by 22 runs
Just a few days ago, the same Bangladesh team were gung-ho about having beaten a full-fledged England team in an ODI.
The Bangladesh players started getting cocky towards the end of the match with their hooliganism-like celebrations after each wicket.
Jos Buttler was the first one to witness it on the ground.
Mind you, no words were exchanged, it was just the way the players celebrated almost mocking the English batsmen that ticked Buttler off.
The monkey-faces, the teasing, all juvenile behaviour. If one can go back to school times, it's what the bully would try and do to intimidate you.
It stems from the lack of self belief one has that makes one act cocky and irritating. Similar is Bangladesh players' reason. The success they've had recently has in some ways gone to their heads.
It was not often that our neighbours have had success against the big teams in world cricket but the ICC World Cup 2015 was a different story. They not only beat sides like England convincingly they did this on a consistent basis even after the World Cup. Infact, in the past 2 years this is their first defeat in a One Day series at home.
They had remained unbeaten in 6 consecutive series at home. In this time they managed to beat teams like South Africa, India, Zimbabwe.
Inspite of all this, somehow they have not been able to instil the confidence in themselves to believe that they can do this more often and have what it takes to play at this level.
The problem with Bangladesh cricket had always been that they were not improving as a side and since the past 1 year or so they have. They started beating good one day sides, started playing competitive cricket, which is what would get them the respect that they are so clearly desperate for.
At the same time, incidents like these will not only hamper their reputation further but make fans the world over believe that this is a one-off phase and that Bangladesh is not capable of reproducing such amazing wins on a consistent basis.
The 1st Test vs England was another super chance for the team to stamp their mark in Test cricket.
A chance for them to transform their ODI success to the Test level. But, alas, they could not.
This loss can easily be attributed to their 'lack of experience at the Test level' but it is not that.
It was selfish cricket on the part of a few batsmen that led to their downfall from a fairly commanding position.
Sabbir Rahman, who most are hailing to be the next hero from the land of the left-arm spinners, was the chief culprit. He would often get off strike in the beginning of the over, letting the lesser batsmen face the music on the other end. The ploy obviously did not work as very soon the game was all over when Ben Stokes got Taijul Islam and Shafiul Islam lbw in a matter of 3 deliveries.
Hope Sabbir and Bangladesh have learnt their lesson and instead of seeing the annoying side of the players and the fans, we get to see a team with more self-belief and confidence.
Result - England won lost by 22 runs
Just a few days ago, the same Bangladesh team were gung-ho about having beaten a full-fledged England team in an ODI.
The Bangladesh players started getting cocky towards the end of the match with their hooliganism-like celebrations after each wicket.
Mind you, no words were exchanged, it was just the way the players celebrated almost mocking the English batsmen that ticked Buttler off.
The monkey-faces, the teasing, all juvenile behaviour. If one can go back to school times, it's what the bully would try and do to intimidate you.
It stems from the lack of self belief one has that makes one act cocky and irritating. Similar is Bangladesh players' reason. The success they've had recently has in some ways gone to their heads.
It was not often that our neighbours have had success against the big teams in world cricket but the ICC World Cup 2015 was a different story. They not only beat sides like England convincingly they did this on a consistent basis even after the World Cup. Infact, in the past 2 years this is their first defeat in a One Day series at home.
They had remained unbeaten in 6 consecutive series at home. In this time they managed to beat teams like South Africa, India, Zimbabwe.
Inspite of all this, somehow they have not been able to instil the confidence in themselves to believe that they can do this more often and have what it takes to play at this level.
The problem with Bangladesh cricket had always been that they were not improving as a side and since the past 1 year or so they have. They started beating good one day sides, started playing competitive cricket, which is what would get them the respect that they are so clearly desperate for.
At the same time, incidents like these will not only hamper their reputation further but make fans the world over believe that this is a one-off phase and that Bangladesh is not capable of reproducing such amazing wins on a consistent basis.
The 1st Test vs England was another super chance for the team to stamp their mark in Test cricket.
A chance for them to transform their ODI success to the Test level. But, alas, they could not.
This loss can easily be attributed to their 'lack of experience at the Test level' but it is not that.
It was selfish cricket on the part of a few batsmen that led to their downfall from a fairly commanding position.
Sabbir Rahman, who most are hailing to be the next hero from the land of the left-arm spinners, was the chief culprit. He would often get off strike in the beginning of the over, letting the lesser batsmen face the music on the other end. The ploy obviously did not work as very soon the game was all over when Ben Stokes got Taijul Islam and Shafiul Islam lbw in a matter of 3 deliveries.
Hope Sabbir and Bangladesh have learnt their lesson and instead of seeing the annoying side of the players and the fans, we get to see a team with more self-belief and confidence.
