Fielding lets Pakistan down again

Pakistan took Mominul Haque's wicket in the last over of the day to end Bangladesh's score on 236 for 4, as three of their five bowlers had an economy rate of around 2.50 per over. Sarfraz Ahmed also took a splendid diving catch towards first slip, a one-handed take, in the final session. But this will not tell you the real story of the day for Pakistan; it will not tell you how the day was spoiled with five chances missed.

Mohammad Hafeez dropped a tough catch of Tamim Iqbal at leg slip on 16 but was dismissed for 25 seven overs later. Imrul Kayes was dropped twice; Yasir Shah misjudged a catch at the long-on boundary when he was on 12, and Azhar Ali dropped him, on 30, at short leg. Imrul went on to score 51. Zulfiqar Babar dropped Mominul, when on 17, off his own bowling, and the batsman added another 63 runs. Mahmudullah edged one that flew between Younis Khan and Mohammad Hafeez at first and second slip, and he added another 41 to his cautious 49.

Pakistan started the day by losing the toss on a track that had nothing to offer for the bowlers. Still, the bowlers created opportunities, but they were not grabbed by the fielders.

Pakistan's fielding is the most talked-about problem of their game. In dozens of press conferences, their captain and coaches have vowed for an improvement but the statements have merely proved to be promises that have not yielded any results. Pakistan are without a full-time fielding coach, as the present one, Grant Luden, is a specialist strength and conditioning coach. But they hardly improved with a full-time coach either.

Coming from a poor fielding show in the World Cup, Pakistan are following the same trend. The gap in their fielding and of other teams is massive and is growing wider every day. Converting half chances into full is something unusual for them, and it happened again on the first day of the Test series as well.

Wahab bowled 114 balls in all, 92 dot, and conceded 40 runs at an economy rate of 2.10. Under the scorching heat on a long day, the chance missed by the slips would have hurt Wahab even more. He had been steaming in the whole day when Pakistan were struggling to pick wickets, and when he did induce the edge, the fielders hardly responded.

At the end of the day no coaching staff came out to talk about their shoddy fielding display and Azhar, their vice-captain, could not offer any explanation to why Pakistan failed to pouch the chances. He could not even explain the prevalent grass-root problem back home.

Fielding is not a new problem for Pakistan. "Nobody dropped a catch deliberately," Azhar said after the match. "But we can't afford to let such chances get away.

"It was a good pitch and it's tough to create an opportunity, still bowlers created them but we didn't avail them otherwise we could have been in a better position. But it eventually ended as an even day and we have a chance tomorrow to take early wickets and get into a good position."

Azhar assured some commitment on behalf of his team. "We are trying to give our best in fielding and with time we will improve," he said. "It's not like we didn't put in our efforts as every player was switched-on in the field but it was one of those days where we weren't able to take the chances. I don't think the game swung away from us, but yes we should have ended with six to seven wickets. That could have been much better for us and we remained two wickets short."