A victory by an innings and 239 runs by India against Bangladesh at Mirpur and another thumping win by an innings and 283 runs by England against West Indies at Leeds with both matches concluding in less than nine sessions should give an indication of how vast a gulf that existed between the two sides in each of these two tests which started on the same day. Both these victories or defeats depending on from whose side are you looking at figure among the top sixteen test margins by which a result was decided.
Test #1833 India in Bangladesh 2007(2nd Test) at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur 
It was clearly evident at Mirpur that Bangladesh is still miles behind to be able to put up a descent show in a test match on all five days and need to work a lot to become a really competitive and consistent test side. Their young talent can always come up on top of any side in the world on a day or two but to sustain the fight in a test match for a longer duration they certainly need a lot more than the youthful exuberance and flamboyance. No doubt they have good bowlers, excellent fielders and exciting batsmen, but they keep falling in packs quite frequently. Hardly can two or three of their batsmen bat longer than a couple of sessions and very rarely a batsman stays longer at the wicket to accumulate a century or let the batsman at the other end hit a century. Till such time at least two or three of their batsmen shows some consistency and staying power at the wicket, the brilliance of the likes of Ashrafuls, Rafiques and Mortazas will inevitably be wasted.
Just consider the fact that there have been just twelve centuries hit by their batmen in their seven years of test history during which they played 46 tests. In its 46 test match history only Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful with three centuries apiece have hit more than one century in a test career. Except for once never in an innings two batsmen could reach a hundred run mark. I strongly believe till two of their batsmen can hit a hundred in the same test innings more frequently, at least on flat batting tracks like the one at Mirpur, Bangladesh need not be considered as a worthy opponent by any team. Even though they put up a great show on one day of a test match any current test playing nation can come back and win from any situation like Australia did at Fatullah last year. The last time two of their batmen hit a hundred in the same innings they ended up claiming a first innings lead against a full fledged West Indian team that was captained by Lara and included Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul and Ridley Jacobs in their batting lineup. Bangladesh ended up setting up a target and forced West Indies to play out for a draw at Gros Islet in 2004.
It seems to me that Bangladesh will need to contend with some consolation victories and an occasional upset in ODIs against major teams till they change their psyche and realize that they need to approach different forms of the game in different ways to register a victory or for that matter even a creditable draw in the five day game against any test playing nation without having any intervention from rain gods.
Currently they look capable of beating a test side just from Zimbabwe and as if to prove that point their only test victory till date out of the 46 tests they played since attaining the test status in 2000, was achieved against a depleted Zimbabwe test side in 2004-05 at Chittagong. Of course, the fortunes of Zimbabwe cricket were just started to go downhill very fast at that time and within eight months they were stripped of their test status. In remaining 45 tests Bangladesh could draw just five tests including the first test of the current series. Rain played a major role on more than one occasion in all those matches.
With Whatmore leaving the Bangladesh’s national team, Captain Habibul Bashar’ position too being in jeopardy and their most experienced batsman Javed Omar registering a very rare King Pair, Bangladesh needs to find ways to achieve mental toughness to stay and fight with a strong will to succeed to keep up their test status, otherwise ICC might give them a break from test cricket like they did to Zimbabwe.
Their performance against their neighbors within a couple of months of being on top of the world with two remarkable wins in ICC World Cup was not only a very disappointing one for their home crowds but also a wake up call for the ICC while considering to grant test status to other teams like Ireland. The kind of pathetic displays they put up in both forms of the game against the same team that they embarrassed, humiliated and sent packing prior to the second round in the World Cup leaves more doubts in the minds of those who thought at last the Tigers have come out of their wilderness.
Following are some of the statistical highlights of this test match:
By hitting a century each Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in a mammoth India’s first innings total of 610/3 decl have provided the first instance of top four batsmen(no.1,no.2, no.3 & no.4) hitting a century in an innings of a test match. There are only five other instances of top three batsmen (no.1,no.2 & no.3) hitting a hundred in a test innings, the first of which occurred in 1924 in the 2nd test between England and South Africa at Lord’s. Following is the list that provides the details of all those occasions along with the latest record.
Top Order Batsmen with Hundreds | Team Total | For | Vs | Venue | Series | Test Seq |
JB Hobbs(211),H Sutcliffe(122) & FE Woolley(134* | 531/2 decl | Eng | SA | Lord's | 1924 | T0154 |
CC McDonald(110),AR Morris(111) & RN Harvey(133) | 600/9 decl | Aus | WI | Port of Spain | 1954/55 | T0404 |
WM Lawry(210),RB Simpson(201) & RM Cowper(102) | 650/6 decl | Aus | WI | Bridgetown | 1964/65 | T0589 |
SM Gavaskar(172),K Srikkanth(116) & M Amarnath(138) | 600/4 decl | Ind | Aus | Sydney | 1985/86 | T1034 |
MA Taylor(111),MJ Slater(152) & DC Boon(164*) | 632/4 decl | Aus | Eng | Lord's | 1993 | T1224 |
HH Gibbs(147),G Kirsten(220) & JH Kallis(157*) | 600/3 decl | SA | Zim | Harare | 2001/02 | T1562 |
MH Richardson(145),L Vincent(106) & SB Styris(119) | 630/6 decl | NZ | Ind | Mohali | 2003/04 | T1662 |
KD Karthik(129),W Jaffer(138+), R Dravid(129) & SR Tendulkar(122*) | 610/3 decl | Ind | BD | Mirpur | 2007 | T1833 |
Rahul Dravid with his 65th century stand in 109 tests eclipsed Steve Waugh’s record for most number of century stands in test cricket. Following is the list of all batsmen who have figured in at least 50 century stands in a test career
No of Century Stands | Batsman |
For | Tests | Inns | Frequency of Partnership |
65 | R Dravid | Ind | 109 | 232 | 1.67 |
64 | SR Waugh | Aus | 168 | 260 | 2.62 |
63 | AR Border | Aus | 156 | 265 | 2.47 |
62 | BC Lara | WI | 131 | 232 | 2.11 |
61 | RT Ponting | Aus | 110 | 183 | 1.8 |
60 | SR Tendulkar | Ind | 137 | 220 | 2.28 |
58 | SM Gavaskar | Ind | 125 | 214 | 2.15 |
50 | Javed Miandad | Pak | 124 | 189 | 2.48 |
Javed Omar with a first ball duck in both innings joined eleven other cricketers to have registered a ‘King Pair’. By all probabilities Zaheer Khan may have became the first bowler in test history to have claimed a wicket with the first ball he bowled in each innings of a test match. It will be really a painstaking exercise to research those details, but we can safely say that he definitely is the first bowler to have taken the wicket of the same batsman with the first delivery of each innings. Following is the list of all instances of a ‘King Pair’ achieved in Test cricket:
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