Bangladesh selects its best 12 for the inaugural Lords Test match

[amim]

1 Javed Omar, 2 Nafis Iqbal, 3 Mohammad Ashraful, 4 Habibul Bashar (capt), 5 Rajin Saleh, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim, 7 Khaled Mashud (wk), 8 Mohammad Rafique, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza, 10 Anwar Hossain Monir, 11 Shahadat Hossain, 12 Aftab Ahmed.

Rahim, Aftab Ahmed and Rajin Shaleh will fight for 2 spots.

Sadly enough, there is no tapash baisha. I think most of my posts re-iterated the view that Taposh will not be included in the final XI. Since I have been following Australian cricket closely i seem to have predicted Whatmore's way of thinking correctly and which means exclusion of experienced tapash.

Anyway if whatmore's instincts are anything to go by then we should also see Rahim featuring today despite his inexperience like Clarke had his debut for Australia with his poor 1st class average. InshaAllah Bangladesh will play into the 4th day.

Edited on, May 25, 2005, 9:02 PM GMT, by amim.

[reverse_swing]

What's point of opening another thread? We already have discussed a lot about this.

[deshibhai]

Originally posted by amim
Since I have been following Australian cricket closely i seem to have predicted Whatmore's way of thinking correctly and which means exclusion of experienced tapash.
Edited on, May 25, 2005, 9:02 PM GMT, by amim.

Perhaps you can explain what in Whatmore's way of thinking has led him to pick Monir in place of Taposh because I cannot seem to understand. I realize that Taposh may not be the stellar bowler that all of us would like to see bowling for Bangladesh, but what makes Monir better? A four-wicket haul against a Northamptonshire second XI in a half-3day match? Something else I am missing?

[amim]

Originally posted by deshibhai

Perhaps you can explain what in Whatmore's way of thinking has led him to pick Monir in place of Taposh because I cannot seem to understand. I realize that Taposh may not be the stellar bowler that all of us would like to see bowling for Bangladesh, but what makes Monir better? A four-wicket haul against a Northamptonshire second XI in a half-3day match? Something else I am missing?

Whatmore's way of thinking is no different to Australian way of thinking about cricket. I have seen them meriting selection to Shaun tait who is the 2nd fastest bowler after brett lee in Australia and consistently bowls quicker than 145 km/h. He is very quick but wayward and goes for many extras but they still went with him. They selected him for the Ashes series. With Tapash and Munir ... i have seen both of them bowl in Australia and they are both medium pacers. Since taposh failed to impress against British Unis, his only chance to make amends was to bowl better than Munir in the 3rd match but instead Munir impressed. Munir is tall and that;s the advantage as he can generate steep bounce from good length. Munir bowls at a lively pace but his average speed was less than 132 km/h in Australia. If he can seam it and hit the deck hard then the conditions will assist him .... it's his height more than anything that got him the top order wickets in the 3rd match.

Edited on, May 25, 2005, 10:50 PM GMT, by amim.

[deshibhai]

Ok, so far, the reasons I am getting are:

--Monir is wayward and goes for many extras (like Shaun tait)

--Monir is a medium pacer

--Monir bowled better than Taposh in half an inning against a second string Northants team--20 overs, 4 wickets, 113 runs versus 10 overs, 1 wicket, 53 runs for Taposh.

I hope it works. If it does, no one will be happier than I.

[amim]

I am not saying Munir is wayward. But dav included him because he was able to perform in English condiitons most importantly pick up wickets at a regular interval whereas Tapash failed to do so.

There is no point in being economical in test cricket unless your strike rate is good. Bangladeshi fast bowlers should be concerned with strike rate and average rather than economy rate of 5 or 6 an over. I am not insinuating Tapash is not a good bowler ... on the contrary he is probably more consistent bowler in the sub continent pitches than Munir. Otherwise tapash would not be in the national team. However since this is first test tour for BD, tapash's previous exposure in ODIs in english condition counted for little in this instance as dave was more interested in his performance in the longer version of the game. 2 practice matches proved that he was more expensive than his usualself. Anyway be it munir or tapash, it is not going to be easy against english batsman. I would rather look forward to our premier fast bowlers ... Mashrafe and Shahadat ( the fastest bowler) to deliver the goods. I don't see Aftab getting wickets unless english are gifting it to him ...

I can see tapash being included in the final XI for the 2nd test if any of the 3 fast bowlers fail to impress.


Edited on, May 25, 2005, 10:56 PM GMT, by amim.

[amim]

Moderators please close this thread as there is another thread discussing the same thing. Thank you.

Monir goes for so many extras ......... Watch the great bowlers most of them going for so many extras eg : Wasim Akram .........

Great 11 selected even the best ......... in test cricket , it's not allabout the runs it's allabout the bowlers strike rate ............

Monir got more wickets than Tapash in the practice matches already what else you want ? ........