Bangladesh’s bubble burst  | The Business Standard

It’s happened again. The honeymoon period is over and the harsh reality is Bangladesh are once again staring down a big defeat in an away Test match. 

Despite all the build-up ahead of the series and two good sessions with the ball on the first day, the last four have been one-way traffic from India as the hosts have strengthened their grip on the first Test in Chennai after day 2. 

Three things have become certain in life – death, taxes, and Bangladesh’s batting being brittle. 

Against a gun Indian bowling lineup consisting of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, it was the more unknown quantity and quality of Akash Deep’s swing bowling that did the Bangladesh batters in. 

Yes, Bumrah might have made the early breakthrough with the wicket of Shadman Islam, but Akash’s second over really put the cats amongst the pigeons 

His swing bowling and channelling the stumps with the ball coming into the left-handed batters really exposed their technical glitches. 

It exposed a flawed system producing flawed, undercooked players as Akash took out the wickets of Zakir Hasan and Mominul Haque in back-to-back deliveries. 

The brutal reality of the situation is that these are the best that are currently available and one of the potential players that could have played -Tamnim Iqbal – is now doing commentary.

Against Pakistan, Litton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mehidy Hasan Miraz all starred with the bat despite a top-order collapse.

Only this time, there was no counter punch. Litton got himself in, played some lovely strokes, and then got himself out playing a loose shot that defies logic and throwing his wicket away.

Before the series began, Litton himself said that he needed to contribute more and take more responsibility, but that all rings hollow now. 

Mushfiq and Mehidy both got starts but were unable to convert to something more meaningful.

The way Shakib Al Hasan played, he showed signs of getting back form with the bat despite a disappointing outing with the ball in unhelpful conditions. 

But he too departed to a needless reverse sweep where the ball hit his foot and popped up nicely for the wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant to gleefully collect. 

In the end, 14 wickets were taken by fast bowlers at Chennai on Friday, the most in a day’s play in India since 2006

While the batting has been suffering for a while now, the number of left-handers at the top of the order is also another cause of concern and has been for quite some time. 

Perhaps a shuffle in the lineup with Mushfiqur coming in earlier and even getting Mahmudul Hasan Joy in place of one of the left-handed openers could be a solution and it’s not like Joy has been doing well recently when given chances either. 

The bowling that had been so talked about had its moments with Hasan Mahmud getting his fifer, becoming the first Bangladeshi bowler to get one in India in a Test.

It was also back-to-back five-wicket hauls for the right-arm pacer who is quickly becoming an indispensable part of the Test lineup. 

Taskin Ahmed also got wickets in the morning session, three out of the four remaining batters to be exact, but one felt that the left-handed Shoriful Islam who is out with injury would have been the better choice here, especially against the left-handed India batters. 

Bangladesh were humiliated in the last Test series when they visited India in 2019, losing both Tests within three days, and five years on, it will take a herculean effort to change that in this Test.

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto spoke about taking the fight till the final session, while India captain Rohit Sharma spoke of not taking Bangladesh lightly and treating it as a dress rehearsal ahead of the Test series against Australia.

It seems like these were just mere words with not much substance behind them given how the second day’s play has gone. 

When all is said and done, Bangladesh were utterly outplayed, dominated and left bare bones against a much stronger and more mature Indian outfit. 

Bangladesh’s bubble has well and truly been burst by India as they lead by 308 runs with seven wickets still in hand.