current state of our test bowling

[al Furqaan]

All in all things look reasonably promising, Sakib is as venomous as ever, Rajib's got his groove back, etc.

But there are few things worthy of discussion. For example is Sakib already the best ever bowler we've ever had? Is Shahadat going to fade away or is he here to stay? And wasn't Mash a very solid Test bowler once upon a time, and if so, what happened to him?

Sakib vs Rafique

Its not fair to compare the two SLAs, because of several reasons. For one thing, Rafique had many hurdles to overcome, and was often missing a quality bowler at the other end. But in this regard, Sakib has also usually lacked a pressurizing partner to bowl in tandem with. The overall career numbers point heavily in Sakib's favor, but it must be remembered that Rafique also had a sub-30 average for first part of his career. But Sakib, can also get better as he is still very young. Further, Rafique never averaged in the mid 20s as Sakib is currently doing going into the 3rd innings of the India Test.

Let us look at both players when in their peak form: the five wicket haul. Fivers are generally regarded as being the bowler's equivalent of a century. Both spinners also have roughly the same number of Michelle's and it makes for a good comparison.

Sakib

7-36 (NZ, Chittagong)
6-99 (SA, Centurion)
5-62 (IND, Chittagong)
5-70 (SL, Mirpur)
5-70 (WI, Grenada)
5-130 (SA, Bloemfontaine)

Rafique

6-77 (SA, Dhaka)
6-122 (NZ, Dhaka)
5-36 (PAK, Multan)
5-62 (AUS, Fatullah)
5-65 (ZIM, Chittagong)
5-114 (SL, Colombo)
5-118 (PAK, Peshawar)

The first thing that one notices is that Sakib has the best figures, but that also 5 of his 6 fivers come at a cost of less than 100 runs per haul; Rafique only has 4 of 7.

Rafique's average haul is 5.29 for 84.86, whereas Sakib's is 5.5 for 77.83. More wickets for less runs, and his overall econ is better too.

Sakib also seems to be more of a "classical" spinner, slower through the air, turns the ball on most surfaces, and relies on clever variations to get the batsmen out. He is more of an attacking spinner than Rafique who waited for the batsmen to lose his focus. Sakib also seems to be a very thinking bowler and is always changing the field to meet the demands of the situation, something captains like Bashar and Ashraful didn't do as much.

Shahadat's Return

Shahadat's comeback of sorts, is also promising not only for wickets but for pace as well. Its promising for Mortaza is feared to be finished with the longer version, and we have too much inexperience to rely on other pacers. Sakib too needs some support, preferably from a non-spinner, and he has it for now. Shahadat's recent performance has cemented his place as our best ever Test quick, but also reassures us that his potential and ability are still here, no matter how ugly he might look at times. He also brings that rare energy of emotion (a la Kevin Garnett) which makes it impossible to tell if he's just taken a hattrick or been smacked for six 6s in an over! No matter how ordinary or brilliant his last delivery, his follow through facial expression always seems to say "How did that miss!???" Thats a far cry from Mortaza, whose body language is often droopy and lackluster when things are not going so well.

What Happened to Mortaza?

Since the end of the 2005 England tour, Mash has averaged 51 with the ball in Test cricket. Before that, his numbers were quite solid, not too far from the likes of Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Umar Gul, Lasith Malinga, James Anderson, and other "stand-out" pacers. Exactly, what went wrong, will perhaps never be known.

[bangla-red]

Shahadat's has only bowled in one innings of his "revival" therefore I wouldn't look into it. Let's wait until the end of this series if he can remain consistent. The Mash stat is interesting though...

[nycpro96]

Very nice thread. Shakib imo, is a better bowler than Rafique and is consistently getting better and better. Shahadat looked very solid bowling in the first innings and if he comes back to this sort of form, we will have a pretty lethal test bowling attack.

[_Rafi_]

Thanks AlFurkan vai for the comparison. And Shakib got all 5 wkt haul in last 10 matches. That mean he gets it in every other match

[Nadim]

If our pace attack improves in next couple of yrs, i think we should let Mash to concentrate only in ODI/T20. Mainly coz Mash haven't got the strength to bowl a long spell and because of this his bowling average has been very poor since 2004/2005.

[SS]

some BD players are very emotional...not sure the remark made on press conference some how brought the old Shahadat back and made Shakib better...but consistency is the key for our game development...Shahadat needs to continue his better showing on the other hand Shakib needs to play a vital role in the second innings when IND will bat...there is no way to tell the state of our current test bowling as it is very inconsistent and unpredictable atleast from the pace department. And the way our new pacers are getting drafted in test and fading away (e.g. Mash, Sajidul) it is concerning that our state in test bowling especially in pace dept will be stabilized soon.

[cricket_pagol]

I think Shahadat still needs to work on his line and length... he is still a little wayward.

[BANFAN]

Will be back here at the end of this series....... hope the current state will be a bit clear at that stage.

[Eshen]

Excellent thread Asad.

IMO, Mash should retire from Test cricket. There is no point for him to risk his career for a format where he is not doing well.

Selectors should stick with four pacers currently in the squad for next few series, while working with Talha, Robiul, Sajid, and Shuvashis as back up options.

Team management also need to think about who they want to stick by as second spinner. Will Riyad make the cut? Is Enamul worth to continue with? Or should someone from Shuvo, Saqlain, Sunny, and Mosharraf be given a try in the next home series (against England)?

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by bangla-red
Shahadat's has only bowled in one innings of his "revival" therefore I wouldn't look into it. Let's wait until the end of this series if he can remain consistent.

Indeed indeed. In fact I'd wait a couple of series before getting comfortable about him leading our pace attack. Even with his five wicket haul, he still seems to be straying in line more than desired. If he does become more consistent it will be great news as we don't have anyone else who is as experienced and if he doesn't shoulder the responsibility of leading the fast bowlers, we're pretty screwed.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by Eshen
IMO, Mash should retire from Test cricket. There is no point for him to risk his career for a format where he is not doing well.

Indeed indeed. He's a good ODI bowler and should probably stick to that format. Maybe T20s as well, as long as he keeps away from the death overs.

[Dhruvo]

It is too early IMO to label shakib as the better bowler compared to rafique. I mean rafique played a very long career and performed consistently for a long time, shakib on the other hand is much newer to cricket.

[Murad]

Originally Posted by rafi_mc69
Thanks AlFurkan vai for the comparison. And Shakib got all 5 wkt haul in last 10 matches. That mean he gets it in every other match

Yeah. He got 50 wickets in last 8 games.

[simon]

With inshallah Mash & Razzaq back in the squad We will have a strong test bwlng attck.
Shahadat is always a better test bowler than Mash,that's what Siddons said before the 1st test that Shahadat got 4-5 wckt haul but not Mash.
Rubel got the pace,Shafiul got better line lenghth.Rubel needs to get polished a bit.
And comparing Sakib & Rafiq I believe both are great but Sakib is just super great,already took so many
wckts,imagine how many to come.

[Eshen]

A very interesting thing about Mohammad Rafique was how his SR varied under two captains - Khaled Mahmud and Habibul Bashar.

Grouping	Span	Mat	Inns	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	5	10
*Habibul Bashar	2004-2007	14	19	561.5	89	1785	36	5/62	9/160	49.58	3.17	93.6	2	0
*Khaled Mahmud	2003-2003	6	11	314.5	77	792	33	6/77	7/116	24.00	2.51	57.2	3	0

IMO, Shakib is lucky that Bashar lost captaincy soon after his Test debut.

*Excluded stats against Zimbabwe.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Eshen
A very interesting thing about Mohammad Rafique was how his SR varied under two captains - Khaled Mahmud and Habibul Bashar.


IMO, Shakib is lucky that Bashar lost captaincy soon after his Test debut.

*Excluded stats against Zimbabwe.

not surprising since chacha was a fighter who just lacked talent and skills and bashar was decently skilled but had little fight.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Indeed indeed. In fact I'd wait a couple of series before getting comfortable about him leading our pace attack. Even with his five wicket haul, he still seems to be straying in line more than desired. If he does become more consistent it will be great news as we don't have anyone else who is as experienced and if he doesn't shoulder the responsibility of leading the fast bowlers, we're pretty screwed.

he was quite good after his initial 2 overs which went for 20 runs. and the last few overs sachin was purposefully hitting out to get runs even at the expense of exposing ishant and sreesanth. otherwise his econ would have likely been under 3, with 4 wickets to boot.

[chol_bd123]

Sakib is very accurate with his bowling. BUt i think he needs to bowl some more googlies

[Gowza]

management need to keep the next-in players close to the team and give them proper coaching and facilities etc. guys like sajidul, subashis, shuvo, saqlain sajib need to be looked after. current state of test bowling is unstable tbh, hopefully shafiul can make things a bit more stable but shahadat's performance in this match can't be expected, at this point it's still an occassional thing, shakib is probably the only bowler who can be relied upon atm.

[Eshen]

Originally Posted by chol_bd123
Sakib is very accurate with his bowling. BUt i think he needs to bowl some more googlies

How can Shakib bowl a googly?! He is not a legspinner!

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
he was quite good after his initial 2 overs which went for 20 runs. and the last few overs sachin was purposefully hitting out to get runs even at the expense of exposing ishant and sreesanth. otherwise his econ would have likely been under 3, with 4 wickets to boot.

I wasn't talking about his econ, I was referring to his line and length in general. Even with his 5 wickets, he was more erratic than his stats would suggest and I'm talking about his bowling on day one, beyond his first two overs.

[Beamer]

Originally Posted by Eshen
A very interesting thing about Mohammad Rafique was how his SR varied under two captains - Khaled Mahmud and Habibul Bashar.


IMO, Shakib is lucky that Bashar lost captaincy soon after his Test debut.

*Excluded stats against Zimbabwe.

Thanks for this. What a stark contrast. Bashar was the most negative captain I have ever seen. I couldn't stand his captaincy or leadership skills. Rafiq had to probably earn his wkts more without aggressive field support.