Bangladesh looking to change approach in Tests too, says Shakib
Bangladesh were positive in their approach. They went at 4.7 runs per over in the match, by far their highest in Tests. Shakib said that they are trying to change their batting approach in the longest format as well.
The likes of Lorcan Tucker and Andy McBrine gave a brief scare but Bangladesh managed to wrap things up quickly in the fourth morning and reached the target of 138 quite quickly losing three wickets.
Mushfiqur Rahim, the Player of the Match was in form again, this time notching up a breezy half-century (51* off 48). Bangladesh's run rate of 5.07 was the highest in a successful Test run-chase in Bangladesh.
The one-off Ireland Test was one of the rare occasions where Bangladesh fielded three frontline seamers in a home Test. Although the spinners did bulk of the bowling, the contribution of fast bowlers was noteworthy. Ebadot Hossain picked up five wickets, including the two in the fourth morning to bundle Ireland out. Shoriful Islam too gave a couple of important breakthroughs.
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Shakib Al Hasan bowled only 16 overs in the match while his fellow left-arm spinner Taijul Islam got a brilliant nine-for in the match.
There were more surprises in store. Bangladesh sent Litton Das to open the innings with Tamim Iqbal in their second innings. A wicketkeeper-batter, Litton Das last opened in a Test match 37 innings ago.
Captain Shakib said that Bangladesh opted for a few experiments in this match.
"Normally we don't play on this sort of wicket. Credit to Ireland they tried their best. Taijul bowled really well and in the 2nd innings all the fast bowlers chipped in. There are a lot of areas we can improve, this was a match where we could experiment with a few things, some worked out, some didn't," he said.
Bangladesh were positive in their approach. They went at 4.7 runs per over in the match, by far their highest in Tests. Shakib said that they are trying to change their batting approach in the longest format as well.
"We were positive enough and the wicket suited us the way we wanted to bat, that's one area we are looking to change our approach. I won't say this was the ideal Test wicket but would say it was a good batting wicket," Shakib added.
