[Sohel]

I watched Dhiman Ghosh closely and with great interest during the recently concluded Dhaka versus Chittagong yawner that turned thrilling in the NCL. The ‘experienced’ young man from Dinajpur now playing for Chittagong was boosted by back to back 100s with the Academy in Australia and a great NCL season last year, continued his good form. He got robbed today as a worse than Asoka-like caught behind decision from a local umpire ended his otherwise promising innings. Believe it or not, the BTV replay clearly showed that the ball didn’t carry and clearly hit the grass before being scooped up by Anwar’s gloves. There are no third umpire referrals in the NCL and Anwar, perhaps an ArZentina fan in world soccer, had no problems faking it. Maybe he “really thought” he gloved it, wink wink.

As a keeper, he’s both extremely acrobatic and plays the angles correctly with his whole body much like Adam Gilchrist and Andy Flower, or good a stand-up ice-hockey goalie like Grant Fuhr or Dominik Hasek, minimizing possibilities of unforced byes and other wicket-keeping errors. Like Mushfiqur Rahim, our justifiably number one keeper, he’s also lively and clever behind the stumps. Mushy probably has a slight edge in stumpings with his fast little hands second only to Pilot’s.

Overall a better keeper than Mushfiqur Rahim in my humble opinion, Dhiman's footwork and defensive technique with the bat still leave a lot to be desired when compared to the man he hopes to replace behind the stumps one of these days. A tall batsman by Bangladeshi standards, his “stand-up straight” batting stance often does not allow him adequate time to adjust to dipping deliveries as his feet stay glued a foot outside the line of delivery. But anything loose and high, he will put away with spectacular authority, usually bulleting over the covers, square leg or mid-wicket. His back-foot drives are good to look at and he also plays the cut shot late enough. A good rotator of the strike with a soft bottom hand, he also understands that one does not need a high backlift to generate power especially against quicker bowlers. Against slower bowlers, he judges flight and turn extremely well.

I will go ahead and rate him on a scale of 5 with 5 being “excellent” by international standards, 4 being “good”, 3 being “decent”, 2 being “average”, 1 being “below average”, and 1 being “crap”.

If I give Dhiman Ghosh, the keeper a 4.5 out of 5 with Pilot leading the list with say, 4.75, I’d give Mushy with his fast hands an ever-improving 4.0 in that scale. Shahin Hossain still leads him with 4.25, and Saghir Hossain Pavel trails him with 3.75 respectively. All others are 3 or below from what I’ve seen.

Batting wise, I’d give Dhiman 3.0 out of 5 with Mushy leading the list with 3.25. I’d give Jahirul Islam a 3.0 also, Pavel a 2.75, Pilot a 2.25, and with all others below 2, including the hugely overrated Anwar.

So it’s no big surprise that Mushfiqur Rahim remains my easy first choice keeper for Bangladesh, a team tragically lacking in well-tempered, technically proficient batsmen.