The pace unit is showing hope of winning the world

Mainul Islam

April 12, 2023

5.6 minutes

364

Author:

Mainul Islam

364

The pace unit is showing hope of winning the world

Bangladesh has a global reputation as the ‘team of Mirpur’. Bangladesh takes advantage of using the slow spin pitch of Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, there are many complaints among the netizens. Whether the allegations are true or false, there is no way to deny a thing. And that – Spin has always been Bangladesh’s main strength. Shakib Al Hasan-Mehedi Hasan Miraj’s has been attacking the opponents with this spin bowling for years. But this time Alan Donald came up with something different. Even just a year ago, the Bangladesh cricket team’s strength was completely spin. The consistency of pace bowlers is far from being talked about, no sustainable pace unit can be found in Bangladesh cricket.

The pace bowling unit has never been able to produce consistent success despite the occasional individual surprise of one or two. So the selection panel has always had to trust Spinn. But Donald wants to change the idea now. Donald is a fairy tale gem. It is as if he is bringing out the real gem by rubbing Taskin Ahmed-Hasan Mahmud. He is constantly showing that Bangladesh’s pace bowling attack can be as dangerous as the spin attack. This has never happened before! It has been a year since the South African coach set foot in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is completely a team of spin power. The Tigers are not paying attention to teams like Australia-New Zealand due to the spin pitch at home. But outside the house, the tiger is completely like a cat. Far from the global tournament or South Africa-New Zealand, Shakib-Tamim can’t win any match even in the Asian country of Pakistan. Donald’s first assignment in Ghor Amanisha was in his native South Africa. Bangladesh is a country where they have not won any match against the hosts before. Bouncy wickets, Bangladesh’s pace bowling weakness, and the power gap between the two teams; All in all, there was not much to be optimistic about Bangladesh in that series. It was expected that the Tigers would lose like never before. But what Tamim did is undoubtedly incredible. Bangladesh won the match against them in the field of South Africa, and Bangladesh won the entire ODI series! This is an incredible thing. Markram-de Kock was silenced by Tamim-Shakib. How did this revolution happen? As always, Bangladesh’s spin attack was very strong in this series. The contribution of the batters was also good.

However, the pacers’ contribution was special. That was what made the difference. Separately, Taskin was superb, taking 3 wickets for 36 runs in 10 overs in the first match. And in the third match, Taskin made the impossible possible. 5 wickets left the hosts in the dust in South Africa. South Africa is all out in 26.3 overs! Series best Taskin only because of bowling.

Shariful Islam also did well with the ball in this South African series. The Pacers did better than usual in this series but nobody noticed the difference. Because then it’s the same old story again. Home series, spin-dependent Bangladesh. Pace bowling is fragile again. But Taskin still bowled well. In addition to getting regular wickets, he also gave fewer runs. Hasan Mahmud has also recognized some differences in Bangladesh’s tragic situation in Zimbabwe. However, it cannot be called the awakening of the pace unit in any way. To say it will be called ‘Taskin’s new form’.The slow growth of the pace bowling unit during Taskin’s renaissance is evident now.

Since last year, Ebadat Hossain has started to match himself well in Tests and ODIs. Shariful is quite economical from the start. Sometimes he brings a good breakthrough. But he also has a bad habit of scoring a lot of runs on bad days. And as always, the auto choice of the team is Mustafizur Rahman. Many times he wins the match under pressure, sometimes he can’t sustain the pressure. The bowling may not have that edge as it used to, but the cutter master is always special. Roughly, this pace unit suddenly changed in 2023. Donald’s magical touch brought out Hasan-Taskin’s monstrous form. And the batting line of India, England, and Ireland will be burnt by that cannon. And that is the awakening of the pace unit. However, it is not necessary to know rocket science to understand the incredible progress that India has made in pace bowling since the series at the end of last year. Those who watch the game of Bangladesh regularly can catch the difference easily. Nevertheless, let’s pull some statistics for the reader’s convenience. Bangladesh has played their last three series at home. And since Bangladesh’s biggest strength at home is spin, let’s start a little comparison with spin. Bangladesh has taken a total of 27 wickets in the ODI series against India. Out of this, the spinners have taken 14 wickets. And the theaters have taken 13 wickets from those wickets that help spin along with the spinners. Then the England series. In this series, Bangladesh’s pacers had 17 total wickets in both formats of the white ball, while it was 25 for the spinners. However, it is difficult to understand the contribution of pacers in this series with statistics. Because the theaters have made a special contribution to winning the T20 series. The impact of the bowling of the pacers even on spin-assisted wickets is proof of the helplessness of the English batsmen. The batting line of Jos Buttler-Moeen Ali did not care in front of Hasan-Taskin’s bowling cannon. As the result, Bangladesh whitewashed England for the first time in T20.

Bangladesh pacers were in their best form in the Ireland series. Anyone who watches every match of this series will be forced to say that pace is the main strength of Bangladesh, not spin. Taskin-Hassan bowled fire in both the white ball series. The difference is also clear. The pacers took double the wickets of the spinners in the white-ball series against the Irish. Shakib-Mehdi took 12 wickets in all while Taskin-Hasan and Ibadat-Mustafiz took 25 wickets. The ODI World Cup is going to be held in India at the end of the year. Looking ahead to the World Cup, everyone is preparing the team in their way. The Tigers will get some advantage because of the familiar conditions in Asia. Besides, Bangladesh’s strength in the ODI format remains. If a little improvement can be made with this, it will be very difficult to suppress Bangladesh in the World Cup. Almost all the cricketers of the national team have experience playing on the Indian field. If it is a typical spin wicket, Shakib-Mehdi will do the job easily. And pacers have to take responsibility for bouncy wickets. If the theaters can maintain their current form, then winning the World Cup will not be too impossible for Bangladesh.

Last Updated: Apr 12, 2023