Shanto’s resilience and the missing steps in batsmanship

Bangladesh batters' lack of batsmanship got exposed against India's superior attack in the Chennai Test, where skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto's valiant knock was the only exception in an otherwise dreadful batting performance.

Shanto's knock of 82 off 127 balls did little in changing the outcome of the match, which the hosts won by 280 runs with over five sessions in hand, but it set an example for the rest of the Bangladesh batters of how one can stand their ground against India's lethal attack and score runs.

Although there were some hiccups, Bangladesh batters found ways to make an impact in the two Tests against Pakistan last month in Rawalpindi.

In just a matter of weeks, the same batting line-up looked out of its depth in Chennai with Shanto being the only batter to score a 50-plus innings.

This dip in performance makes it seem like a chasm had opened in the batters' application in less than a month.

But a more realistic explanation would be that against Pakistan the batters could exploit some apparent weak points of the attack whereas against India, they had no way out, as all five Indian bowlers were constantly gunning for wickets and this relentless pressure was too much for them to handle.

"I am not going to compare [India and Pakistan]. Both are quality sides. We have a lot of challenges overall, but we are not in control of a lot of things," Shanto said about the gap in performance from Rawalpindi to Chennai.

Heading into the first Test against India, Shanto was going through a lean patch. The half-century in the Chennai Test was his first 50-plus knock for Bangladesh in any format after 24 innings.

Yet, in many of those innings, Shanto did not look out of touch, he got starts but just could not carry on.

Even in the Pakistan Tests, where his highest score was 38, he got his drives and backfoot punches right, not a sign of a cricketer out of form.

After he got to the crease on Day 3, he showed no lack in belief, coming down the wicket and hitting two big sixes against Ravichandran Ashwin.

Yesterday, Shanto got beaten multiple times by the Indian pacers, with pacer Mohammad Siraj troubling him the most. Siraj even tried to lure the batter into a verbal spat to get him to lose his focus.

But the provocation did not work on the Bangladesh skipper, who survived the tense period before eventually falling to Ravindra Jadeja as the eighth batter of the innings.

In order to score runs against a top bowling attack like India's, the batters have to be prepared to deal with tough periods, back their technique and not budge from their game plan no matter what. In simpler words, they need to show better batsmanship.

An experienced and in-form batter like Mushfiqur Rahim threw his wicket away in the second innings while Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan dug their own graves in the first innings by trying sweeps against the spin.

Openers Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam got wonderful starts in the second innings but could not make hay.

Shanto said the batters are working on improvement, saying, "There will always be a challenge for the top order to do well, especially in the first innings. It is important to see how we are coping up with it. We are working towards it but we are not getting the desired results."