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Soumya-Shadman opening pair can be a costly experiment for Bangladesh

Published : Thursday, 29 November, 2018 at 12:00 AM
Ahasan Uddin Bhuiyan
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a 13-member squad for Dhaka Test against the Windies that will be staged from November 30 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka.
The BCB had done much lab works in the last series against Zimbabwe and the experiment continues against the Windies. Things are necessary to make the pipeline healthy and to find out the alternatives of fantastic five Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Muhmudullha Riyadh.
Mashrafe, the leader, the pacer, is now busy in a different track to compete in a different race. He is going to vie in the 11th National parliamentary election from Narail-2 constituency and most possibly will call his days of cricket immediate after the ICC World Cup 2019 in England and Wales.
Shakib, Tamim, Mushi and Riyad will serve the team for couple of years more. But the million dollars question is who are going to be their successors? Is any? Some names might come to mind for serving crisis moments but the long term prospects are still to be flamed.
In the new squad, however, BCB kept Soumya Sarkar and fresher Shadman Islam as openers without any back-up. This is the point to scrutinise.
It's true that BCB failed to find out a perfect mate for Tamim at opening stand in a decade but there have some prospective names who need to be nurtured. Imrul Kayes, Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar are the very flamboyant potentials for opening. BCB should brush them more to bring out their fineness.
Imrul has been dropped and possibly for the injury attack. BCB called in Shadman and is sure to get 94th Test cap on Friday. There are two issues to be termed the decision 'improper'. First, why not Liton with Soumya instead of Shadman since Soumya himself is not experienced enough and going through bad patch? Now, another pressure of 'senior partner' has been put on his tender shoulder. Is Soumya have that capability to handle the pressure of playing longer version's shit anchor role from the very beginning of the innings?
Second, how many days will the new boy sustain in the national tent? There have much doubt about his fixity. He needs to survive defeating Soumya, Imrul and Liton with the performance. Besides, he is a good performer in domestic. It doesn't means he'll be great option for international cricket. The practice of including a player in the national team for one or two matches is very costly experiment, of course.
A cricket potential deserves more scopes if he gets national cap for make himself capable of handling international pressure. None of Mash, Shakib and Tamim emerged as star from the very beginning. They fought against all odds and utilised all scopes. BCB should focus on the fire to the lamps at hand.



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