Our approach towards Test cricket

[TheWatcher]

Recently I have seen many members commenting that we should not allow aggressive batsmen like Tamim or Junaid to play in Test cricket. I can't agree with them and Peter Moores, the current England coach and the coach of England A-team that recently toured Bangladesh, gives me a good reason not to -

But don’t you think that the natural aggression of these players will hamper their Test prospects in the future?

Moores: I do not agree with that. I think they need to be aggressive and attacking players if they are going to move forward in Test cricket. The Australian players have showed the way and I think because it is naturally in-built in Bangladeshi players it is something that should be encouraged and nurtured. To keep that aggression and keep that attacking flair will be good for Bangladesh Cricket as a whole.

- TigerCricket

I agree that you need good temperament to build long innings in Test cricket, but you have to keep in mind that temperament without talent or application of talent is not going to take you far at this level. The way we play, blocking balls after balls, we actually make it very easy for opposition bowlers to get on top of our batsmen. By going into defensive shells, you let the opposition bowlers to try different things and to eventually get you with an odd turn or bounce. We have seen this happening over and over in past. The only time we have seen some success in Test cricket was when Shahriar Nafees got on top of Australian bowlers.

I also agree that Tamim and others should be told to cut off all their crazy and unorthodox shots in Test cricket as there is no pressure on batsmen to score quick runs here. But that should not mean that we should totally discourage our batsmen from playing their natural game, or, worse, exclude them from Test teams.

[cricman]

Boundaries are easier to find in test cricket thats why Ash and Bashar are our 2 best Batsmen in Test cricket and looking at Tamim FC average he should get on the Test Team based on His merit. Of course Ash was Beasting in 4 day matches before he got recalled. If I had to Name our 5 Best Test Batsmen it would be

Ash, Bashar, Rajin, SN and Rafique. If you thought Aftab played cameos in ODI's he gets boundaries like it's 20/20 to bad he never gets passed 20.

3/5 play aggressive cricket and I thought SN played real positive cricket in his knocks of 70+ and 138 vs Australia, Ash scores a 100 his SR is always 75 and Habibul is still Mr. Fifty just watch.

[cricket_king]

Thank god for the watcher. I thought everyone here was against aggressive players like tamim or aftab getting selected for the test team. Thanks for that dude

[TheWatcher]

Errr... I like aggressive players, but Aftab is too hyper even for my liking. Also, unlike Tamim or Junaid, Aftab's FC record is not that good.

[One World]

I agree on Moore's apprehension but the only problem is gifting your wicket too early can turn a draw into a horrible innings defeat. While in ODI if you can build a partnership even in lower order you can fight back. For test you have all the time in hand to decide.

[al Furqaan]

tamim is aggressive but he lacks shots...his shotbook is almost as limited as javed's.

asides from the off-drives and the slaps over the bowlers head for 6, tamim doesn't have any shots.

more painful than watching a JO match-losing 50 off of 130 balls is watching tamim slash and miss at balls around off stump 4 times in an over...tamim is a no, no, no for test cricket.

i favor opening with SN and tamim's brother Nafees...or mehrab jr. but mehrab jr isn't really impressing me, i think NI will do much better than mehrab or JO.

[TheWatcher]

I agree Tamim is more of an off-side player and needs to develop his on-side strokes, but I don't think he is as limited as al Furqaan thiks.

[scoilaheez]

Tamim will play test cricket but in the meantime SN should open with either Rajin or Tamim. Also Aftab should be in the test team down at no.6 as he seems to play better with the shine off the ball.

[crickwizard]

nou, Mehrab Jr will open with SN, Tamim will not play test cricket. Then again, so far i have never seen BD playing different in Test, in most test matchese they played, pretty same apporach in both form of games.

[Aritro]

To be honest, Aftab should be removed from the Test team until he learns to put a price on his wicket. But there's no reason why players like him and Tamim can't be successful Test players.

Being aggressive never cost Hayden, Gilchrist, Sehwag, Jayasuriya...

[kfirooz]

Originally Posted by Aritro
Being aggressive never cost Hayden, Gilchrist, Sehwag, Jayasuriya...

True, aggression does not disqualify one from playing tests. But the players like the ones named, should be able to play ball on merit, very good at shot selection and capable of take on a sedate role when the situation demands, even if means that you score below 10 facing 100 odd balls.
Bangladesh players seriously lack patience and a long mental presense which is paramount in a five-day match. Their quick loss of focus at the immediate task often leads to failure at test level.

[BangladeshCricket]

We are going wrong direction in both test and ODI. Test our batters lack temperment, techniques, patience, judgements to play and our bowlers are just ok.
ODI we still play like top associates.

[sadi]

Good thread the watcher bhai. Well there is a difference between an aggresive player with good techniques and an aggresive player with no footwork. As much as I like Tamim play, he definitely needs to improve his footwork and temperament to be successful in the future odis, forget about the tests for now. Aftab is the one I am really looking forward to see in the test matches. I totally understand when people criticizes him for playing too many shots and get out but he has the technique and footwork to play the longer version and if he can improve his shot selection and temperament a little, he will be a treat to watch in the test matches.

[fwullah]

We have to remember the fact that we're playing Test cricket after a whole year's break. So, whatever team we play, be it with or without aggressive players like Tamim and Aftab in the team, we're expected to get smashed in the 1st test at least.

The best choice in my opinion would be to use the confidence of the in-form players of the World Cup 2007, but lets not forget about Sharhiar Nafees and Rajin Saleh, who have got success and temperament both in Test cricket.

My pick would be to allow Javed Omar, Tamim Iqbal, Bashar, Saquib, Ashraful and Aftab to play in the 1st test, in addition, keep Shahriar Nafees and Rajin Saleh in the 15 member test squad just in case either of the above fail terribly in the 1st test.

We will also have to consider how we perform in the ODI series prior to the test series.

Tamim does not have the technique or the footwork to play Test cricket, but I'm pretty sure that we're not gonna make the Dhaka or the Chittagong pitch bouncy enough to not to allow Tamim to play in Tests. Besides, we need to see how good (or tough) our younger crop of players like Tamim and Saquib are playing at the Test level.

A good team to be able to beat a Test team like India, needs time to be prepared, and this time, we just don't have the time to prepare ourselves a good enough test team.

[sadi]

I am really interested to see how Tamim plays in the subcontinent where he may get away with his lack of feet movement.