Latest update January 3rd, 2025 4:30 AM
Sep 05, 2014 Sports
By Sean Devers in St Vincent in association with Sterling Products Ltd, Universal Sports Store, Payless Varity Store & Carib Beer
When the opening Test of the two-Test series begins today at 10:00hrs at the Picturesque Arnos Vale ground on the 150 sq mile Island of St Vincent, Bangladesh will have a tough task trying to repeat their 2009 showing against an improving West Indies side.
Bangladesh currently sits at bottom of the ICC Test Rankings while the West Indies are two places higher at number eight. Their only two Test wins against the Caribbean side came during their second tour to the Region five years ago when they made a clean sweep of both the ODIs and Test series after their maiden tour here ended in a 1-0 defeat for the tourists in 2004.
Bangladesh earned their first draw overseas in the first Test in 2004 when Khaled Mashud (103*), Habibul Bashar (113) and Mohammad Rafique (111) scored centuries in the same match in St Lucia. This was the only time this was ever done by Bangladesh and the visitors would consider a draw here a moral victory.
Bangladesh’s only two other wins were against Zimbabwe and their 2-0 whitewash five years ago was against a third string West Indies team after the first choice players staged a strike the day before the series commenced.
Today, they start this series 14 years after playing their inaugural Test against India as overwhelming underdogs and without their leading batsman Shakib Al Hasan, whose six-month ban has been cut by three and half months and ends on the penultimate day of the last Test in St Lucia.
Bangladesh have not won a match for the year and its unlikely that they will improve their record of six defeats and two wins from 10 Tests against West Indies on a ground on which they recorded a 95-run win in 2009.
Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam is set to make his debut while Robiul Islam, Shafiul Islam and all-rounder Shuvagata Hom have come in for the Tests. Shuvagata will add strength in the middle-order while Mashrafe Mortaza and Taskin Ahmed will be replaced by two other fast bowlers, Shafiul Islam and Robiul Islam.
During Bangladesh ‘A’ recent tour, Taijul took nine wickets in two four-day matches; with Shakib suspended and Razzak not considered a regular Test bowler, he is a frontrunner for a place in the side today.
Robiul has been Bangladesh’s Test specialist in the fast-bowling department. He hasn’t had a great year though, picking up just 11 wickets in five first-class games, and going wicketless in his only Test for the year. He has also struggled with a hamstring injury in the past 12 months.
Off-spinner Sohag Gazi had a six-wicket haul when the teams last met in Bangladesh but he has returned to Dhaka to have his action tested by September 19, two days after the conclusion of the Final Test. Gazi has been replaced by left-arm spinner Elias Sunny who took 6-94 on his Test debut against the West Indies in 2011 but has not played a Test since March 2013.
Mushfiqur Rahim, who scored an unbeaten 106 in the warm up game against St Kitts, has a tough job leading an inexperienced side and will expect batting support from Tamim Iqbal, who along with Brian Lara (against Sri Lanka) has scored the only centuries on this ground.
Nasir Hossain also got a century in the warm-up game and along with Anamul Haque, Imrul Kayes, Al-Amin Hossain, Shamsur Rahman and Mahmudullah should lend support with the bat.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who should become the ninth 40-year-old West Indian to play Test cricket today and has the most runs and most centuries against Bangladesh, is the glue that holds the West Indies batting together.
Only behind Lara in the West Indies runs aggregate in Tests, the Guyanese with 29 Tests tons to his name, warmed up for today’s Test with a solid 183 against Bangladesh on Monday, as guest player for St Kitts.
Chris Gayle, one of only four batsmen with two Test triple centuries, will want to recapture the form that made him one of the World’s most dangerous openers in all formats of the game. The recent consistency of skipper Denish Ramdin and the return to form by Darren Bravo who made a ‘double’ in Bangladesh are good signs for the revival of West Indies cricket and young guns Kraigg Braithwaite, Jermaine Blackwood and Kirk Edwards to build on although Guyana’s Leon Johnson has lost his place in the squad.
Dwayne Bravo is a genuine all-rounder, while the bowling will hinge heavily on pacers Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach, Jason Holder along with spinners Shane Shillingford and Sulieman Benn.
Teams:
West Indies: Denish Ramdin (Captain/wicket-keeper), Shiv Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Kraigg Braithwaite, Jermaine Blackwood, Kirk Edwards, Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach, Jason Holder, Shannon Gabriel, Shane Shillingford, Sulieman Benn.
Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain/wicket-keeper) Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Shamsur Rahman, Robiul Islam, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Shuvagata Hom, Al Amin, Elias Sunny.
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