Windies tour of Bangladesh 2018…
– Reifer, Paul, Sherman Lewis in contention to replace suspended Gabriel
By Brandon Corlette
After a humiliating defeat in the first Test match against Bangladesh, the Caribbean side will be looking to bounce back in the second Test that is scheduled to start on November 29, 23:30h Eastern Caribbean time at Mirpur, Bangladesh.
Sherman Lewis
Earlier in the year, Windies tormented Bangladesh with pace and bounce on home soil; as payback, Bangladesh served up an enormous amount of spin in the first Test at Chottogram with all 20 Windies wickets falling to spin. The first Test match was finished within three days. Kraigg Brathwaite and his team will be entering this Test in a cautious and judicious manner playing the Bangladeshi spinners on a spin-conducive Mirpur pitch. West Indies will be aiming to avoid another 2-0 Test series defeat.
After the loss of regular skipper Jason Holder due to injury, another setback occurred for the Windies. Heading into the second Test, they’re dented further by speedster Shannon Gabriel’s suspension, after he accumulated five demerit points in a 24-month period. Gabriel, who picked up four wickets in the first innings to bring back Windies into the game, barged into Imrul Kayes’ shoulder on the opening day of the Test, and that is the reason why he will miss the second Test.
Keemo Paul
However, if Windies are to stand a chance in the second Test, to even put up a fight, much will depend on their batting with the bowlers continuing their decent performance. The likes of Devendra Bishoo, Roston Chase and Jomel Warrican will play a huge role with the ball since they are the spin trio likely to be featured in the starting XI.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh understand what it takes to beat teams on the made-to-order dust bowls. Mehidy Hasan in 2016 was the new talent when he led Bangladesh to their first win against England, picking numerous wickets with his off-spin. In addition to Mehidy, a new talent emerged in Chottogram last week. Nayeem Hasan, a 17-year-old spinner who dismantled the Windies with a brilliant five-wicket haul on debut also featured in a crucial 65-run stand with Taijul Islam.
If Nayeem had five in the first, the in-form Taijul bagged six in the second rendering even Shakib Al Hasan’s feat of getting to 200 Test wickets a subtext in the grander scheme of the series.
Shimron Hetmyer tried to hit his way out of trouble and succeeded for a brief while, but the promising batsman will have to pace his big hits like Sunil Ambris and Warrican did in their 63-run stand that kept hopes afloat in that chase. However, playing spin in the sub-continent can be so instinctive and course-correction between Test matches can seldom be achieved.
Bangladesh have batting worries themselves: only centurion Mominul Haque continued his impressive run of form and the lower order added vital runs to push the score to a daunting 324. The recalled Soumya Sarkar’s double failure and the struggles of Mohammad Mithun and Imrul Kayes did not prove the batting was sufficient. With the toss being important in the second Test, the team that bat first will have an advantage to post a daunting first-innings score and capitalise later in the game on the spin-dominant pitch in Mirpur.
