Bangladesh top-order batters must learn from Taijul & Co to stay in the contest

Bangladesh's last five wickets contributed 105 runs to their team total of 188 in the first innings against Sri Lanka in Sylhet, and nightwatcher Taijul Islam's 47 was the top score of the innings. No. 9 Shoriful Islam and No. 10 Khaled Ahmed struck four sixes between them - the only ones of the innings - while even debutant Nahid Rana, the No. 11, handled a bit of a short-ball barrage.

Taijul hung around for two hours and 27 minutes. While his limited ability with the bat and batting average of 8.96 before this Test would suggest that he is a genuine tail-ender, he has stacked up a few rearguard efforts over the years. On this occasion, he brought out his square drives and on drives for four boundaries, while two more came behind the wicket.

While the contributions of the lower-order batters was nice to see, the talking point was the specialist batters' inability to counter Sri Lanka's fast bowlers. And whether they can get a fix in the final innings where they will have many more to get than they did in the first innings.

Litton Das' 25 was the top score among the specialist batters. Litton got out inside-edging a ball that pitched outside off and nipped back in, while Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Shahadat Hossain nicked balls going away from them.

"I think the three Sri Lankan seamers bowled really well. If you noticed, they bowled really good lengths," Bangladesh batting coach David Hemp said. "They bowled at an angle, so they challenged the stumps. I think they [the Bangladesh batters] were guilty of getting stuck at the crease or playing at balls that weren't hitting the stumps. It is something that we will discuss overnight into tomorrow, so that we are really clear about how we are going to set about being aware of how to cope with their bowlers.

"More importantly, we have to look at how we can score off their bowlers. We are trying to score runs here. We probably got stuck on the crease a little bit, and got sucked into playing at balls that were a touch wide. Playing at balls that we should have been defending."

Test specialists like Zakir Hasan, Mahmudul and Mominul Haque last played first-class cricket in December. They were involved in the BPL afterwards, and more recently the List A competition, the Dhaka Premier League.

"They were playing in the DPL, so some one-day stuff. They came to us before the Test so we get some red-ball stuff into them. That's where you trust them on getting some sort of preparation. They are playing cricket," Hemp said. "You can argue either way but I just think it is more about that mindset. I don't think it is a big problem. The players cope well enough with that. It is about making sure to know where your off stump is, understanding your opposition, what their threats are. Then to be able to deal with it. Schedule is the schedule. You are still playing cricket. You are still playing on a game of cricket.

"I don't want to get too carried away with white- or red-ball cricket. Players are doing well, they prepared well, from what we saw in the first three days leading in. Feet movement and decision-making was good, so we have to keep trusting that preparation. You have to get around the fact that you are playing the longer version."

Speaking about Taijul's effort with the bat, Hemp pointed to the fact that the lower-order batters do spend time batting in the nets. Taijul, for example, spends long hours in the nets after his bowling sessions, especially in the days leading up to a Test.

"Everyone gets a hit [in the nets] in the two or three days heading into a Test match. I think Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 11 made 84 runs off 137 balls [counting Taijul's 47 off 80 and leaving out Mehidy Hasan Miraz's 11 off 34]. That's a good amount of balls played," Hemp said. "Most of them was played by Taijul today but, also, Khaled and Shoriful did contribute to that.

"We want our top end to get most of the runs but if we can get that lower order to contribute, then we put ourselves in good positions going forward. It is obviously going to be the mentality. [Tajiul's contribution] is something that we have talked about as a batting group. He faced 80 balls, which was a great effort. It is something that we pride ourselves on."

Bangladesh will hope that their misfiring top-order batters do better in the second innings but if it becomes a close game, the tail-enders too have to contribute. And they have shown that they can.