'Now they will show a lot more respect'

When Bangladesh were just a wicket away from achieving a historic Test victory over Australia, with Taijul Islam operating over the wicket against Josh Hazlewood, ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan walked up to the spinner and advised him go around the wicket with an angle which will shape in to the left-hander.

Taijul followed the advice of his senior teammate and the reward was imminent. He trapped Hazlewood leg before, with a straighter delivery that pitched in line and hit right in front as the Australia tailender missed the line of the ball, to wrap up the victory.

This is just a glimpse into an otherwise overlooked aspect of the contribution of Shakib, who has been enthusiastic and pumped up right through this Test match as he has been to the build up to this game. Unlike on many previous occasions, Shakib had seemed more involved in every aspect of this game, perhaps more than any other player, to make his 50th Test a memorable one.

His persistence yielded results with ten wickets – the only Bangladeshi to do so twice in Test cricket – and with his fifty in the first innings, he also became only the second cricketer after New Zealand great Sir Richard Hadlee to take ten wickets and score a fifty in a Test match.

It takes a special kind of determination and ability to keep achieving such feats time after time. When asked how he gets the motivation to perform consistently, the all-rounder said that it's the self-belief which changes everything.

"The biggest inspiration is my wife who always inspires me," Shakib told the media after his match-winning effort. "Just a while ago she texted me saying: 'now I can sleep'. Like I said in the presentation ceremony that I thought we didn't have that much of a chance. Then she said, 'I know you can if you can take five wickets Bangladesh can win. I thought about that before going to sleep [the previous night].  I thought if I am able to take five wickets then we have a very good chance and if someone from the other end can take two wickets they will be down by seven or eight wickets. This belief is important and whoever came to the ground today [yesterday] all had the belief that Bangladesh will win. If they have the belief why can't we have that? We could have lost the game by six or seven wickets but it was our intent which was very important."

The No. 1 all-rounder in all three formats felt that they started gaining the belief since beating England at home last year. Bangladesh drew that series against the English 1-1 before going on to draw an away series against Sri Lanka earlier this year.

"Perhaps the biggest change in the current Bangladesh team is the aggressive body language as there were few words exchanged between the players of the two sides here," Shakib said.

Australia captain Steve Smith had exclaimed surprise after some of the Bangladesh players, including Shakib, had claimed that they could win the series 2-0. According to Shakib, after this result, the Aussies will show more respect towards Bangladesh.

"That's [exchange of words and aggression] part of the game which Australians are very good at and we are learning from them….After this Test match they will show a lot more respect. At home, we believe we can beat any side. We had that confidence and the belief came in the last two-three years. Not many have been watching us but we were quietly doing our job," he said.