Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto reiterated the fact that they should prepare the home wickets according to the strength of the opposition, while Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie didn鈥檛 hide his surprise after the second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium went into the second session on the final day.
Ireland lasted 113.3 overs in the fourth innings, which is the second highest in the history of this venue. In total, 412.1 overs were bowled at Mirpur in the second Test, making it the third highest and the highest since 2012 in a Test at this venue.
In recent times, the Sher-e-Bangla wicket has acquired the reputation of being spin-friendly, where often the touring side, especially outside the subcontinent, finds it difficult.
The most recent example came when the West Indies set the new world record of bowling 50 overs of spin in an ODI against Bangladesh. But the wicket for this Test, prepared by Tony Hemming, looked different from its onset.
As the days went by, it was also behaving differently than a typical Mirpur wicket. It had carry and bounce, where the batters could be sure of their shot selection. The degree of turn was also increasing with the progression of the match.
鈥榊eah, it probably did,鈥� Balbirnie said when he was asked whether the wicket surprised them. 鈥業 think a lot of us had seen the West Indies one-day series and were a bit nervous going here.鈥�
鈥楤ut when we arrived, we thought it looked like a decent wicket. But we also thought it would break up quite quickly, which it didn鈥檛. It held together pretty well,鈥� he added.
鈥業t spun pretty much throughout. There was turn but it wasn鈥檛 like every ball. It was just a really good cricket wicket. It was obviously quite tough work for the seamers, but I thought it was a pretty fair wicket,鈥� Balbirnie further said.
However, despite saying that they also wanted good wickets, Shanto wanted different wickets for different opposition.
鈥楾he wicket behaved better than the typical Mirpur wicket. The bounce was true, even today. So we had to toil hard to take each wicket,鈥� said Shanto.
鈥楬onestly, we didn鈥檛 expect it either. We had to toil to take the 10 wickets. But this is the real beauty of Test cricket. And each of us enjoyed it very much.
鈥極f course we always want a good wicket. But I think we should make the wickets according to the strength of our opposition when we play at home. I personally think that we should take that home advantage,鈥� he added.
However, to prepare themselves for the away tour, Shanto wants the betterment of the practice wickets.
鈥業f the wicket of the practice facilities gets better, like batting-friendly or sporting, then our skill will improve. So as a cricketer, I hope that the practice wickets will be more sporting,鈥� said Shanto.
