A tale of Bangla glory and Pakistani subjugation

A day of contrasting feelings and emotions for the two Cricket fanatic nations of South Asia. Exactly 15 years after registering their first away test win, Bangladesh achieved a historic away test series win against Pakistan, a nation with whom they share a testy geographic and cricketing history and rivalry. It's a moment of unprecedented joy, happiness and pride for a nation, which has been grappling with the tag of being a "Nation with undeserving test status" from the day it earned that status in 2000 on the back of its triumph in the ICC trophy held in Malaysia in 1997 and subsequently their shocking win against, who else but, Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup in England. The win in their first-ever 50 Overs ODI WC against Pakistan, who went on to reach the final of that WC, made the Bangladesh team, the flavour of the season as the expectation was, that the new kids on the block from Asia, would soon storm the global cricket stage with mind-blowing performances in the Test format from the word go. But Test cricket turned out to be a different kettle of fish for the new entrants from Asia. The journey of test cricket, which started with a 9-wicket loss in Dhaka in 2000, turned out to be a long arduous one filled with Potholes of humiliating losses that didn't seem to ever stop. The side had to endure 21 consecutive test losses (along with 23 ODI losses) as they tried to navigate their way in the Cricketing world as a full ICC member, prompting many Ex Cricketers, experts and administrators to taunt them and question the rationale behind awarding the full membership to them in such haste. The global scrutiny, taunts and criticism didn't do any help to a side that was clearly technically limited, temperamentally meek and skill-wise limited for the five-day format. It was visible in the streak of the losses suffered on the field. 

Ultimately the team registered their first test win in 2005 against Zimbabwe at home. That win also gave the team its first-ever test series win. It took another four years for Bangladesh to register their first away test win and series victory against West Indies in 2009. It's the WI, that till then had been the happy foreign land for the team, as in 2007, it had created a cricketing tsunami by beating mighty India in the ODI WC, thanks to brilliant performances by two youngsters by the name of Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim. It was apt that the two gentlemen, now considered two of the pillars of the Bangladesh Cricket team, were at the crease when the Bangladesh test team whitewashed Pakistan in Pakistan 2-0 to win a historic test series. 

The team had endured a lot in the last 24 years and gone through unimaginable lows and humiliation and very few highs. So today when they achieved unprecedented glory in the longest and most testing format of Cricket, no amount of compliments and tributes would be considered too flattering for it. Congratulations and Kudos to the team. Make no mistake, when they arrive in India for the test series in a couple of weeks, no one will take them for granted. India will be the mighty favourites, but Bangladesh would command the deserving respect as a formidable opponent.

So, where does the series outcome leave Pakistan? What is happening to them? A team that once was the envy of the Cricket world for the inexhaustible reservoir of talent at its disposal, is looking bankrupt, both in terms of talent and temperament. The team is experiencing an unprecedented free fall in every form of Cricket and that's alarming. A mediocre ODI WC in 2023, a forgettable T20 WC two months back and now a horrible outcome in the test series, that's how the resume of the last two years of Pakistani Cricket would read. Since 2022, Pakistan has had 4 draws and 6 defeats in tests, at home. Yes, you heard it right. This is the record of the side at home, where every ordinary side is expected to be Invincible. But not Pakistan. A side which barely 8 years back had won the now defunct World Test Championship, is now struggling at the lower rung of the WTC table (ranked 8th). The team is playing with players who are looking ordinary both in the departments of skill as well as application. And the alarming thing is, the supply line looks dry with no backup ready to come in and set the stage on fire. 

Let us just look at the just concluded series. In the first test, Pakistan, on a pitch that had appreciable help for the Bangladesh spinners from day 1, for some inexplicable reasons, decided to play 4 seamers and ended up conceding 565 runs in the 1st innings and then within hours got bundled out for 146 against the turn and guile of veteran Shakib Al Hasan and the boy with the Midas touch, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and with that the test was lost. When the two teams met a few days later for the final test, this time, Pakistan decided to rest their two star seamers, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah and strengthened the spin department with a full-fledged specialist spinner, Abrar Ahmed. Now just look at the gap in quality and performance of the players from both sides: In the spin department, bowling on the comparatively flatter first-day pitch, Mehidy Hasan Miraz took a fifer and the Bangladesh spinners snapped up 6 Pakistani wickets to ensure Pakistan innings which looked pretty at one stage at 107/1, folded for just 274. On the 2nd day, Pakistani spin spearhead, Abrar Ahmed went wicketless and was unable to give a breakthrough while Bangladesh managed to escape from the miserable position of 26/6 to 262. A wicket or two by Abrar just after the Seamers had blown away the top 6 batters of Bangladesh would have easily finished the game in the first innings itself with a potential 150-run lead for Pakistan. But an utter lack of potency in the spin department meant Bangladesh almost nullified the 1st innings score of Pakistan and it became a game of 2nd innings. And in the 2nd innings, once again, Bangladesh bowlers blew away the technically suspect Pakistani batting lineup for just 172. And shocking as it may sound, this time, on a 4th day flat pitch, Bangladeshi seamers Hasan Mahmud and Nahid Rana destroyed the Pakistani batting resistance with 9 wickets between them, thereby proving one thing and that is this Pakistani Batting is genuinely struggling right now against both spin and seam bowling and that too without any role of the pitch. If that is not alarming, nothing would be. 

So yes, Pakistan has serious macro problems of governance, lack of stability in coaching staff, poor team spirit, factionalism etc etc. But it is also struggling big time with a dried-up pipeline in terms of genuine cricket talent, which was never the case earlier. Unless someone steps up to address the glaring problems staring at Pakistani Cricket at the earliest, Cricket looks set to go the Squash and Hockey way in the nation: from the pedestal of sublime glory to the abyss of oblivion. Hope, Cricket doesn't suffer the misfortune that the two other great sports have faced in Pakistan. Hope, there is a reversal of fortune. The devastated Pakistani fans would hope that it happens by 24th February 2025 when the two nations will be locking horns in the 50 Overs ODI Champions Trophy game at the same venue of Rawalpindi where their team suffered the most humiliating series defeat today.

By- Ambika Prasad Mahapatra