Hasan shines on debut but fielding lets down Tigers

Pacer Hasan Mahmud impressed on his red-ball debut for Bangladesh yesterday but was let down by shoddy catching from his teammates which allowed Sri Lanka to end the opening day's play of the second Test in Chattogram as the happier of the two teams.

Hasan finished the day with figures of two for 64 from 17 overs, which would have looked much more impressive had the fielders not dropped a couple of catches off his bowling in the morning session.

The 24-year-old pacer tested the Lankan opening pair with the new ball, beating the bat a number of times with seam movement.

After grazing Dimuth Karunaratne's thigh pad once and inducing a thick outside edge off Nishan Madushka which fell short of the slip fielders, Hasan finally managed to nick a ball off Madushka which carried to Mahmudul Hasan Joy at second slip.

But Joy was seemingly caught by surprise and made a mess of the straightforward chance, gifting Madushka a life on nine.

Hasan's woes compounded when Shakib Al Hasan, stationed at the fine-leg boundary, dropped Karunaratne on 22.

The all-rounder, who is usually a safe fielder, misjudged the flight of the ball completely, initially coming forward to catch it but then backpedaled before palming it over for a six.

Hasan's wait for his first Test wicket finally ended in the second session when Karunaratne played the ball on to his stumps, falling 13 short of a century. It was also the pacer's 50th wicket overall in first-class cricket.

Hasan claimed his second wicket of the day with the second new ball, nicking off Angelo Mathews for 23.

With Taskin Ahmed unwilling to play Tests, Ebadot Hossain still recovering from an injury and Shoriful Islam at risk of getting overplayed, Bangladesh are a bit short on red-ball pacers at the moment.

Nahid Rana was tried out in the first Test to fill up that gap and in Chattogram the management is trying out Hasan, who impressed the team's bowling coach Andre Adams on Day 1.

"I think he [Hasan] has bowled really well. He controlled his line pretty well. His pace was good. He is ready physically… He got seam movement. He has got swing and pace. Everything you want from a young pace bowler," Adams said in the post-day press conference.

Hasan was not the only bowler to be let down by the catching, as Mehedi Hasan Miraz also saw a chance he created against Mathews when he was on 10 go begging.

In the Sylhet Test, which Bangladesh lost by 328 runs, the hosts were guilty of dropping Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis, both of whom scored their first of two centuries of the match and changed the momentum of the match.

The Tigers have been guilty of dropping 80 catches in 30 Tests since 2019 and Adams could not hide his disappointment at the fielders again letting the bowlers down.