Fair decision, but inadequate ammunition

On the first morning of the second Test, there was less green on the pitch compared to how it had been the day before. Still, during the pitch report, TV commentator Athar Ali Khan felt a brush when he swept his fingers over the surface. Essentially, it was deduced that the pitch will turn out to be good for batting after the first half-hour. Both captains, Mushfiqur Rahim and Misbah-ul-Haq, had said in the pre-match press conference that they expected the wicket to offer help to the bowlers.

The Bangladesh captain, and by extension the team management, must have prepared for this decision after looking at the wicket upon returning to Dhaka on May 3. Mushfiqur was pictured to have taken a very close look at the wicket during training.

So when he won the toss, the pitch was Mushfiqur's prime justification to bowl first. But the team composition didn't match Bangladesh's intimate knowledge of the pitch as the home team. The decision seemed good enough on paper but without the proper ammunition, it was never going to be put to proper use.

Mushfiqur picked Mohammad Shahid and Shahadat Hossain but left out Abul Hasan, his only other available fast bowler, on a wicket that offered help to the quicks.

Shahid's four spells in the day would have given Mushfiqur some solace. He was used for eight overs in his first spell when he took the wicket of Mohammad Hafeez with an excellent line and had the scalp of Azhar Ali denied by a no-ball. Later too he bowled with discipline and was regularly called for short spells to fill in the gap left by the injured Shahadat. In his final spell, with the second new ball, he took the wicket of Younis Khan, breaking the 250-run third-wicket stand.

But Shahid was all Mushfiqur had on the first day. He had to endure the loss of Shahadat to a knee injury in the first over of the game, and the untimely no-balls that could have been dismissals of Azhar (on 18) and Younis (on 78). On such a day, even the two sharp chances that Mominul Haque couldn't gather at silly point and short-leg, in the 27th and 28th overs, end up being deemed missed opportunities.

This wasn't the first time Mushfiqur had put the opposition in. On those three occasions, Bangladesh couldn't take the supposed advantage of the pitch or the overhead conditions. In Harare in 2013, Mushfiqur had said that he was looking to take the early advantage from the green-tinged Harare wicket. His four-and-a-half bowlers (Shakib Al Hasan was recovering from an ankle injury then and couldn't bowl a long spell) couldn't stop Zimbabwe from reaching a decent 217 for 4 on the first day and finishing up on 389 in the first innings.

In the West Indies in 2014, he had only three specialist bowlers but still he decided that the promise of a few hours of movement for Al-Amin Hossain (playing his fourth Test) and Rubel Hossain (who was averaging 81.23 after 19 Tests) was more important than letting seven batsmen and a batting allrounder face an early challenge. He had used the offspin of Mahmudullah in the sixth over then just like he brought on Taijul Islam in the ninth over this game.

In the following Test on that tour, Mushfiqur rejigged the pace attack by including Shafiul Islam and Robiul Islam but even on that green Gros Islet pitch, Bangladesh were behind by the end of the first day. They lost those Tests by 10 wickets and 296 runs.

These three instances, that too from his own experience as a captain in the last two years, should have served as a lesson to Mushfiqur. It is a fairly good idea to insert the opposition on a wicket that is likely to offer help to the fast bowlers. But since it didn't happen in the bowler-friendly conditions of Harare, Kingstown and Gros Islet, it would be a far tougher job for Shahadat and Shahid in Dhaka. Mushfiqur has never got more than four wickets on the first day of a Test after choosing to bowl.

This was also only the seventh occasion that Bangladesh had decided to field first after winning the toss in 28 home Tests. This was also the first such time in eight Tests since 2010 when Shakib Al Hasan had let England bat first and pile on 599 in the first innings in Chittagong.

Mushfiqur still has time in his hand in this Test, especially if he considers his bowlers to be good enough to engineer another Pakistan collapse as they did on the fourth morning of the Khulna Test, when the visitors lost their last five wickets for 34. He could still hope Shakib and Taijul will use the modest turn available and get him wickets.

But if he is a fan of history (he could be since he has a Masters degree in History), Mushfiqur should look away. Of the five previous captains who decided to field first, three would never lead Bangladesh again in a Test. If he is not a believer in coincidences, he can happily ignore this fact. Unlike Naimur Rahman, Khaled Mahmud and Habibul Bashar, Mushfiqur's Bangladesh is a physically stronger, more skillful and mentally firmer unit. If they can wipe off a 296-run deficit with one partnership, there must be belief to come back from 323 for 3 on the opening day.