IND vs BAN | Indore Day 2 Talking Points: Bangladesh’s day of contemplation and Mayank Agarwal’s bloody-mindedness

11/15/2019

Mayank Agarwal has demonstrated his quality once again in an ultra-dominating fashion, scoring a fine double century to bury Bangladesh’s hopes. However, it was a day for Bangladesh cricket to look back and reflect the lack of impact they have had by keeping the spin-heavy tactic at home.

A day that was in making for a long time

In the Bangladesh cricket psyche, India hold paramount importance, majorly down to the proximity factor and cultural similarity with Bengal, from where Sourav Ganguly hails. Ganguly led the Indian team to Bangladeshi shore for the latter’s first-ever Test and ever since that glorious day in Dhaka, the cricket-mad nation has made India their guru in cricketing parlance, of course. It was India’s plans to go all-bonkers with spin to initiate a kind of home dominance that was hitherto unseen and it was India’s base on which Bangladesh dared to “spin” the results their way at home.

However, it eventually came to a point where all of their three pacers carried drinks in the one-off Test against Afghanistan, and by the time India tour arrived, they were left in shambles. The grassy wicket with red-soil underneath made spinners a little less effective as it would have been three-four years ago in India, and with pacers dictating talks here, Bangladesh were left clueless. If they needed a reality check, it came in the form of Abu Jayed, who bowled his heart out to dismiss India’s first four batsmen with pure skill.

The likes of Mashrafe Mortaza, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, and Mohammad Saifuddin formed a fine pace-bowling strength in limited-overs cricket while Abu Jayed, Khaled Ahmed and Ebadat Hossain created a fine bench. But the lack of foresight by the administration resulted in the team is totally found out in testing conditions and quality oppositions. Indore stands tall to witness a majestic failure.

Mayank Agarwal - a complete batsman and one for the long haul

What is the picture that comes to your mind when you think of Mayank Agarwal? A calm and composed cricketer having fun out there and playing some exuberating square-cut, or nudge off the legs, or the fine hoick through wide of mid-off? For me, Agarwal’s body position and alacrity to get off the blocks leave a mark - a real Test batsman is defined by the kind of approach he takes while responding to a challenge and we have rarely seen Agarwal dropping the guard.

While the world saw the piece of him during the South Africa series, and how quickly he nullified all the plans laid out by the duo of Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada, he was solid in not moving away from the template against Bangladesh too. His forward press and trigger movement, which helps him in his off-side play, was largely intact and by bowling short stuff to him in order to curb his off-side play, Bangladesh suffered the worst.

While many batsmen get fazed with the lack of clarity if the opposition suddenly tries to do something different, Agarwal was smart enough to be ready for challenges, and his decisiveness - nothing better than against short ball with a leg-gully and leg-slip in place - was the biggest revelation. It was the character trait of many legendary batsmen that they do learn from the situations and quick enough to adjust to the new things which Agarwal did in a fashion that would leave many gasping for breath. A cricketer of bloody-minded positivity.

Mominul Haque is new, can the seniors assist him a bit?

When Shakib Al Hasan suffered ban from the ICC, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had to rehash the plans completely at the eleventh hour, leaving the team with a lot to do, with far little experience. Mominul Haque, a soft-spoken cricketer and often reticent enough to speak a word loudly, was clueless about how to take on in what is and will be the biggest challenge of his career. He needed help and advice from everyone who knows a thing or two about, but as evident from the second day’s play in Indore, he hardly got any.

For bowlers, the key was in discipline but bowlers hardly provided any. Ebadat Hossain, despite possessing height and skill to bowl an attacking length, bowled on the channel outside off-stump in a good length spot and was whacked away like a kid was beaten by his class teacher. Spinners forgot that they were playing India and fed too full balls, playing to India’s strengths.

Mominul did what he could, go and talk to the pacer, and gave them space and fieldset they wanted, but hardly had any support in the form of advice from the senior pros in the team like Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim. The lack of off-side field when Taijul Islam was bowling arm balls just outside off-stumps to Hossain committing errors. A little help to the newly-appointed skipper could have helped Bangladesh come out of the rut or might impose some sort of dominance.