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In Bangladesh’s last home Test series their spinners incredibly took 38 out of 39 wickets. Now Australia look set to face at least four Bangladeshi spinners during the first Test in Dhaka in 12 days’ time.
Because quality left arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan bats in the top six, Bangladesh have the luxury of stacking their line-up with slow bowlers in their spin-friendly home conditions.
Against Australia, Shakbib will be joined by 19-year-old off-spin prodigy Mehidi Hasan, with accurate left arm tweaker Taijul Islam a leading contender to be the third spinner. It was Shakib, Mehidi and Taijul who took those aforementioned 38 wickets in the drawn two-Test series against England last year.
Mehedi had an extraordinary debut Test series, hoarding 19 wickets at 16, and received robust support from Shakib (12 wickets at 18) and Taijul (seven wickets at 23).
Mehedi, Shakib and Taijul all were named in Bangladesh’s enormous 29-man preliminary squad for the two Tests against Australia.
(AP Photo/A.M. Ahad, file)
So, too, was experienced all-rounder Mohammad Mahmudullah, a stalwart of the Bangladesh Test team who bats in the top six and also has 39 wickets from 33 matches with his off breaks.
Shakib and Mehedi are locks for the first Test against Australia, while Taijul and Mahmudullah are likely to play, too, giving Bangladesh four spin options.
The hosts would then still be able to play two specialist quicks if they choose. Left arm paceman Mustafizur Rahman is a certainty, with the 21-year-old prodigy having taken 12 wickets at 23 in Tests to go with 44 wickets at 20 in ODIs. Mustafizur’s incumbent new ball partner is right armer Subashis Roy, who has struggled in his three Tests, taking six wickets at 58.
The other specialist pacemen to have played Tests for Bangladesh this year have similarly awful career records – Rubel Hossain (32 wickets at 78), Taskin Ahmed (seven wickets at 81), and Kamrul Islam (seven wickets at 57). Apart from the gifted Mustafizur, Bangladesh’s pace options are very poor.
So, considering the strong preference of the Australian batsman to face pace over spin, and the dead nature of the Bangladesh pitches, it is possible the hosts might even field only one quick in Mustafizur.
In such a scenario they could play three specialist tweakers plus spinning all-rounders Shakib and Mahmudullah. Regardless, Australia look likely to face an even heavier spin assault than they received earlier this year in India.
While India have the world’s two highest-ranked Test spinners (Ravi Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin), their quicks also played a major role in that series.
Umesh Yadav was the best fast bowler from either team in that series, while fellow seamers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were also given significant roles with the ball. India got 22 wickets from pace across those four Tests, compared to Bangladesh’s one wicket from pace across two Tests in their last home series.
While India used two quicks in tandem at times against Australia, I expect Bangladesh will always have at least one spinner in the attack during both of the upcoming Tests. The series opener will be played at Dhaka’s Shere Bangla National Stadium, one of the happiest hunting grounds for spinners in world cricket.
When Bangladesh last played there, defeating England by 108 runs last October, spinners grabbed 32 of the 40 wickets for the match. Even England’s mediocre tweakers Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid enjoyed the surface, with the former snaring 5-57 in the first dig and the latter grabbing 4-52 in the second.
Australia displayed better technique and temperament with the blade against spin in India after their floundering efforts in Sri Lanka last year. Now they are set to encounter what will likely be an even more unrelenting trial by spin in Bangladesh.