ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2020

59 Bangladesh in 2019/20 Recent seasons have seen Bangladesh settle into a pattern of moderate success in home Tests but consistent failure to meet the challenges faced when playing away from home. In terms of results that pattern was maintained in 2019/20, with one win and one defeat at home, and heavy defeats in all three away matches. But those bald numbers tell only part of the story.  One-off home Tests against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe might have been expected to give Bangladesh an easy ride, but any such hopes were soon shattered in September when Afghanistan did not just beat them, but comprehensively outbatted and outbowled them to secure victory by 224 runs. Bangladesh did not play a single quick bowler in this match, but their spin attack was nowhere near as potent as Afghanistan’s, and the visitors’ success was thoroughly merited.  On paper, the next challenges at this level – away series in India and Pakistan – looked far more challenging. Bangladesh’s chances were made harder still by the banning for a year (with a further year suspended) of their captain and one world-class player, Shakib Al Hasan, for failing to report approaches from bookmakers. Sure enough, they had a torrid time in the three Tests that were played, two in India in November and one in Pakistan in February, losing all three by an innings. Above all, the matches exposed their inexperience against top-class pace bowling, particularly in India whose quick bowlers accounted for 33 of the 39 Bangladesh wickets to fall in the series. At this point, Bangladesh’s highest individual innings of the Test season were scores of 74 and 64 by Mushfiqur Rahim, who must now be reckoned a veteran by Bangladeshi standards. That changed in what proved to be their final Test of the season, the one-off game against Zimbabwe later in February. This time it was Bangladesh’s turn to take an innings victory, thanks to scores of 203* by Mushfiqur (his third Test double-century) and 132 by Shakib’s successor as captain, Mominul Haque. But this was a hollow victory in this battle of the minnows, and surely any other result would have been unthinkable.  At least this win ensured that Bangladesh remained well clear of Zimbabwe in the lower reaches of the ICC rankings, where they had earlier been overtaken by Afghanistan until the newcomers fell out of the rankings as a result of the infrequency of their Test appearances. The series against India and Pakistan were their only ones qualifying for the World Test Championship, but their failures in both mean that they have yet to register a point in that competition.  The Test in Pakistan was scheduled to be the first match of a two-Test series, though the second Test was not scheduled until April. In the end that game became a casualty of the pandemic, and has yet to be rearranged. Bangladesh’s very active WTC programme in the 2020 season likewise fell victim: it was to have comprised rubbers against Australia (June, 2 Tests at home), Sri Lanka (July/August, 3 Tests away), and New Zealand (August/September, 2 Tests at home).  Among the problems hindering Bangladesh’s advance at Test level are the absence of young players pressing for Test consideration, and the apparent reluctance of their selectors to go back to some players who failed to make the grade first time round but who continue to perform well at domestic level. In their five Tests of 2019/20 Bangladesh had only one new cap, opener Saif Hasan, and with scores of 0, 16 and 8 he did not give any early indication of being an answer to the urgent need to strengthen their batting line-up. No new contenders emerged, either, from the only two matches played by Bangladesh’s A side during the period under review, which were away games against Sri Lanka A in September and October 2019. Both ended as the tamest of draws.  The schedule of the domestic first-class season meant that, unlike Bangladesh’s Test programme, it was not affected by the pandemic. It once again consisted of the regional National Cricket League, played in two tiers in October and November, and the zonal Bangladesh Cricket League in late January and early February.