Will Mahmudullah rise to Test challenge?

Posted on the boundary at the Gymkhana ground, Mahmudullah looks like a well-settled cricketer. He has come prepared for the heat, with a wide-brimmed hat and plenty of sunscreen and his concentration is on the game. It's the only practice the Bangladeshis get before facing India in a Test match on Thursday.

Mahmudullah is one of the five most experienced cricketers in the team, and there is very little doubt about his place in the XI. He will slot into the middle order, his aim to build on a good start or arrest an early collapse. He can bowl some useful offspin should the frontline bowlers need a rest, is a safe fielder and can largely be trusted to stay calm under pressure. Indeed, on occasion, he has indulged in a word or two with the opposition when they were in vulnerable positions. Mahmudullah is considered a future Bangladesh captain but his Test performances in the last two years have been a bit below par.

Since Bangladesh came back from a six-month break in September 2016, Mahmudullah has rescued the ODI team twice - against Afghanistan and England - and had a cracking BPL season but could barely find any runs against New Zealand. Barring a fifty in a T20I, his scores read 0, 1, 3 ,19, 18, 26, 5, 19 and 38.

When he wasn't being uprooted by stinging yorkers, Mahmudullah kept chasing wide deliveries, inside edging on to the stumps and was also strangled down the leg side. With the ball, he conceded 28 runs in an over during Colin Munro's hundred, and most surprisingly even dropped a few catches. Mahmudullah had it rough in New Zealand, but he will be expected to bounce back in India.

His rise as a match-winner in limited-overs cricket has been well documented. From a bits-and-pieces allrounder with occasional flashes of brilliance, he smacked back-to-back hundreds in the World Cup in 2015 and then excelled as Bangladesh's finisher in the Asia Cup T20Is in 2016. His ODI batting average since November 2014 is 39.73, much higher than his 32.85 career average. In Tests, however, his record slumps: only one fifty in his last 16 innings.

So it begs the question, is Mahmudullah simply giving more priority to the shorter formats? Judging by how hard he trains for Test cricket, it is more likely that he just hasn't got the rewards as quickly as he has done in ODIs and T20Is.

Is he lacking the technical skill for Test cricket? It is true that he often played away from his body in New Zealand and struggled when the bowlers tucked him up with short balls. But Mahmudullah is an all-round batsman, and in time he should realise that he can manoeuvre some of those climbing deliveries square of the wicket and get off strike.

How about his metal fortitude? Of late, he has been rather extravagant with his strokeplay. Last October, with three minutes to stumps on the second day of the Dhaka Test against England, he was bowled by Zafar Ansari attempting an across-the-line sweep shot. He would rarely do something so unnecessary in ODIs or T20Is.

When Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha asked him to tighten up outside the off stump before the 2015 World Cup, he worked on his balance and now plays the rising delivery with more punch. When he was asked to become a T20 finisher last year, he expanded his power game and found new areas in the field to tap into for quick runs. Now he has been asked to become a pillar in the middle order of the Test team.

What he does in the three formats is not easy - he essentially has three separate roles - but Mahmudullah has been pretty good at taking on new challenges.