Clash of styles as Tigers take on England

Rain has been a constant companion of the Bangladesh team since their fourth World Cup match against Sri Lanka was washed out in Bristol on June 11, and it was a presence in Taunton yesterday during their first practice session since that game.

However, in their eagerness to get their World Cup campaign back on track and lift themselves from seventh position after four matches, 12 of the 15-man squad started practice in the afternoon drizzle at the Coopers Associates County Ground. The small ground will be the venue for the Tigers’ next match against the West Indies on June 17. The players missing from the optional practice session were Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das and Rubel Hossain. Shakib, who sustained a left thigh strain in the match against England on June 8, has been advised to rest and may join the team during practice today or tomorrow.

During practice itself, the Tigers appeared to have overcome the gloom of rain setting back their race to the semifinals, and were enjoying the warm-up game of keepy-uppy and their fielding drills. As the sun broke through batsmen like Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim were eager to get the net batting started as there was no telling how long the good weather would stay.

Apart from Shakib’s injury, there are lingering concerns regarding Mohammad Saifuddin’s back problem which first flared up during the warm-up match against India on May 28. Bangladesh bowling coach Courtney Walsh said yesterday that Saifuddin had played a couple of games ‘under duress’ but hoped that the two days of rest would be good enough to have the pace-bowling all-rounder back to 95 per cent fitness. Skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has been nursing hamstring trouble since the India match as well. Both players, however, looked fit enough during fielding practice, both diving around to take catches.

With the match still three days away, settling on a playing eleven was still a way off. The square boundaries in Taunton are short, which may play into West Indies’ power-hitters’ hands. One change could be to include an extra pacer in Rubel Hossain, but Walsh said that they would have to see the pitch closer to the match day to come to that decision.

Although the Bangladesh team in Taunton were not involved in a World Cup match yesterday, the result in another match in Taunton would have dampened spirits a bit in the Tigers camp. The match between India and New Zealand in Nottingham was washed out due to persistent rainfall and that could potentially make Bangladesh’s progress to the semifinals more difficult than it seemed after their match against Sri Lanka was washed out on Tuesday.

The Tigers -- at seventh position with three points from four games -- were enjoying a two-day break from cricket in Taunton ahead of their next game here against West Indies on Monday. The ongoing World Cup, with 10 teams playing each other before the top four move to the semifinals, is a zero-sum game of sorts. New Zealand’s fortune -- India are one of the strong favourites -- may be Bangladesh’s misfortune, and skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza did not seem too happy when he came to their hotel lobby at about the time when the match in Nottingham was abandoned. New Zealand, who beat Bangladesh by two wickets on June 5, are now at the top of the table having taken a point from a match that many expected them to lose.

The equation for Bangladesh does not change much, however. A couple of hours before Mashrafe came to the lobby, head coach Steve Rhodes said during an informal chat with reporters that while he was happy with where the team is, it was time to start winning. Despite the result in Nottingham, Bangladesh still need to win four of their next five matches against West Indies, Afghanistan, Australia, India and Pakistan.

With his family in tow, and with Mehedi Hasan Miraz tagging along, Mashrafe then went out for lunch. The inspirational skipper would be looking to keep the spirits of the team high when they start getting back to cricket with an optional practice session today.

Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Mithun, Sabbir Rahman and Mosaddek Hossain have taken the break in action to spend some time away and are expected to return today. Tamim is expected to join the optional training session.

A left little finger injury that just a month ago seemed to be a minor one has now worsened to the point that ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan's participation in the 2019 ICC World Cup, set to begin on May 30 in England, is currently in jeopardy.

The latest updates from doctors after assessing his injured area is that the cricketer will not be able to undergo surgery at least for the next six months, until the infection fully subsides and has been observed to not have any traces in the bone. Further details of his current state will be known after test results arrives in the next few days.

The cricketer, who is in 72-hour observation under doctor Greg Hoy at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne, will have to stay in Australia for at least eight days.

The doctors have started administering antibiotics and injections again. Shakib is expected to return to the field after three months to test whether the infection recurs.

"Since there is no chance of doing surgery till around six months elapse, because of the infection. If that [infection] remains [when the surgery is done] then the hand will be ruined, so no one will take that chance. We have to wait till it's a hundred per cent sure that the infection is gone.

"When the medication stops after one-and-a-half to two months we have to wait for one or two months to see if the infection increases. I will also have to play to see if the infection increases. When all the tests are done and we are sure that there is no chance of the infection coming back or increasing, we can go for surgery. It may take six months or one year. Doctors are thinking six months to a year," Shakib told The Daily Star yesterday.

There is little chance of Shakib avoiding the surgery altogether, if the pain miraculously disappears after the medication ends. Even after surgery the finger will be in a fixed position with little to no movement, but it is expected to be in a state suitable to play cricket..

Shakib injured his finger in the final of the tri-nation series against Sri Lanka in January this year.

After returning from the Caribbean in August, Shakib said that he will have to undergo surgery, but Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan expressed a desire that he postpone the operation till after the Asia Cup.

Shakib return from the UAE mid-way through the Asia Cup and had to undergo immediate surgery to remove the pus from his finger in Dhaka and flew for Australia on October 5.

SHAKIB'S RACE TO THE WC IN CASE OF SURGERY

When the medication stops then we have to wait for one or two months to see if the infection increases. Doctors are thinking six months to a year. The medication will end after a month and a half to two months from now; I have to start playing a month after the medication ends to see whether the infection is still there, whether the virus has remained in the bone. If the pain goes away miraculously, there will not have to be a surgery, but chances of that are minuscule. 

At the business end of a tournament, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was once more faced with an all-too-familiar hurdle. In the last two ICC 50-over tournaments, it was India that stopped Bangladesh's march -- in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal and the 2017 Champions Trophy semifinal. After an impressive run in the ongoing World Cup, Mashrafe and Co are left having to win against India today to stay alive in the race to the semifinals.

Mashrafe was under no illusions about the size of the task at hand when speaking at the pre-match press conference in Birmingham yesterday.

"Look, every time we play, we want to win, but India were the better side in the last few World Cups," Mashrafe said when asked about his team's chances. "We go out onto the field to play at our best, and let's see. You never know. If you have a very good day, play every area, and if we are 100 percent correct, then you never know. It's a sport that on your day you can beat anybody."

All sportsmen present a veneer of confidence ahead of a contest, but Mashrafe seemed to struggle to maintain his.

"I'm not surprised," Mashrafe answered when asked whether he expected the team to last this long in the World Cup. "I think there's not too much left. We have to play at our best. If we can manage to win, that will be great, but to be honest, both sides [India and Pakistan, their next opponents] are very strong. It's not going to be easy, but we have to play hard and have to be 100 percent in every area. Good thing that we're still in the tournament, maybe, maybe not [after tomorrow], but let's see. We have to play a lot better than what we have played."

And that is the nature of the challenge facing Bangladesh. Most observers have been impressed by Bangladesh's progress through the tournament -- beating West Indies, South Africa and Afghanistan and almost beating New Zealand. But with how the teams stack up -- India have the most varied bowling attack and the best players of spin bowling, Bangladesh's strength -- Mashrafe knew that his team would have to play even better to stand a chance against the 2011 and 1983 champions.

"Whenever we have beaten big teams, I don't think we have ever won by playing well in one department," Mashrafe said when asked if there was one area in which he would put Bangladesh ahead of India. "It has always been batting, bowling and fielding. If we can do well in all sectors, then of course we can win."

There may be one chink in India's armour and that is their top-heavy batting department. Opener Rohit Sharma and skipper Virat Kohli, at number three, have scored a lion's share of their runs and getting them early could expose a softer middle order. But Bangladesh seem ill-prepared to exploit that as well, as they have managed to take a wicket in the first 10 overs just twice in six matches. Pacers Mustafizur Rahman and Mohammad Saifuddin have taken 10 wickets each, but only one of those wickets, that of Chris Gayle's wicket by Saifuddin, was taken by a pacer. Mashrafe meanwhile has just one wicket from six matches.

"It has not been ideal, for sure," Mashrafe said. "You need early wickets against India, otherwise they can get a very big score. But just because it has not happened before does not mean it won't happen tomorrow [Tuesday]."

That seems to be Bangladesh's way forward -- they have to find something that they have not yet found in the tournament.