When Bangladesh were about to begin their one off Test against India at Hyderabad, very few individuals entertained the thought of the game even entering the fifth day’s play. With India undergoing a dream run and the leadership of Virat Kohli doing the job, it was perceived that Bangladesh wouldn’t even challenge the hosts.
However, on a deck that remained good for batting generally throughout the game, the Bangladesh Tigers managed to do quite well as they stood in the way of the Indian bowlers for long. Despite losing the Test on the fifth afternoon, the visiting batsmen managed to play 100+ overs in both innings, which can be considered a great achievement for them.
“I thought in the past as well we have created plenty of opportunities but we never held on from there which cost us,” said Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim post the game.
“Had we restricted them to 500-600 it would have been different. They would have needed another session for the extra 100 runs that they scored. It was quite tough out there, their bowlers have a lot of variety not just with the spin but also with their pacers.
“I am very proud of my side. Even our number eight, nine and ten have showed a lot of character. We can learn a lot from India, how their lower order contributed against England. These are the little areas where we want to improve. There are a couple of matches against Sri Lanka and we’ll look to do well there. We batted over 100 overs and Mehedi in the first innings batted and bowled well,” Rahim mentioned about the positives.
“Our fielding let us down and there is scope of improvement there. But in the entire side the belief is there that if we can compete for over five days we can compete with the big boys. Unfortunately we couldn’t do it here but hopefully in the future we would be able to do it,” Rahim concluded.