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| Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim drives the ball through the off side during his unbeaten 68 on the first day of the first Test against the West Indies at Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong yesterday. |
With very little of the country's cricket history being memorialised, it becomes difficult to draw inspiration from past heroism if one hasn't witnessed it first-hand. Tamim Iqbal was looking through YouTube for footage of Fidel Edwards but resorted to a landmark moment for the Tigers.
Bangladesh's first earned Test draw in 2004 which saw Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Rafique and Khaled Mashud hit centuries had the Bajan in the West Indies bowling attack. Tamim decided that the trio's great performance on the day will be enough to rouse him.
“I was browsing through YouTube yesterday, looking for his [Edwards's] bowling and whenever I found a video, it was of him hitting someone on the nose or getting wickets. So I wasn't really sure what to watch,” began Tamim at the post-match press conference yesterday.
“Then I realised that Rafique bhai, Sumon bhai [Habibul Bashar] and Pilot bhai [Khaled Masud] scored centuries against [an attack that had] Edwards. I shared that memory with Imrul Kayes. I told him, 'If they could do it, why can't we?'
“So we went into the middle with a good feeling. He was trying his best but there wasn't anything in the wicket for him,” explained Tamim.
The left-hander's half-century gave the Tigers a good start to the Test match; the almost three-hour long 52 saw him survive Imrul in the first hour, cringe at Nafees getting slammed on the nose in the next and add 52 for the second wicket with Rokibul Hasan. Having weathered such choppy waters, Tamim was expected to stay on but his favoured slog-sweep became fatal.
“I have said that I'm still not at my best. I wanted to spend time in the middle to get back the rhythm in my batting,” he said.
“I don't have any regrets with the shot in which I got out. I have scored plenty of runs with this shot whenever I've played a big shot. It is one of my favourite shots.
“I don't have an answer for this [why I got out after being set]. I try to stay in the middle as long possible and score runs. I have to work this out, but I think I'm not at my best but I was satisfied with the way I batted today,” he added.
Despite his dismissal in the second session, Bangladesh moved into cruise control at the end of the day, a setting which Tamim praised.
“I think it is a good achievement that we batted one whole day. It is difficult to say how much we'll score since this isn't a fast-scoring wicket. Batsmen have to work hard on it. I think 320-350 will be a very good score.
“Normally when I drive a ball away from the body, it comes to the bat easily but it wasn't coming here. Hitting the ball was difficult unless it was pitched up or a really bad delivery.
“Even getting out was difficult as there wasn't any sideways movement or extra bounce,” he explained.
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