0Baie geluk aan Bangladesj Engeland Spin te verslaan

Welgedaan Bangladesj op 'n eerste toets oorwinning oor Engeland. Die oorwinning is deeglik verdien en die reeks kon so maklik klaar 2-0 na die gashere eerder as die 1-1 gelykop.
Beide wedstryde is 'n uitstekende advertensies vir toetskrieket in wat hulle toets vir albei spanne met die Tigers in my gedagtes beweer 'n punte oorwinning oor die twee wedstryde. In Mehedi Has­an they have clearly unearthed a young dia­mond who may yet help to pro­pel his team to more vic­tor­ies against the top teams.
On this evid­ence, egter, it is dif­fi­cult to call Eng­land a top team. Wat 'n gemors. The per­form­ances they put in were simply unac­cept­able – espe­cially the bat­ting line up. In the first test the entire XI had at least one first class cen­tury to their name. Like­wise in the second – save for Steven Finn. But in both they capit­u­lated in the face of decent spin.
The same squad travels to India in the com­ing days with much to pon­der. If they thought the bowl­ers of a test play­ing nation of the strength of Bangladesh were too hot to handle then I greatly fear what will hap­pen in India. It could eas­ily be a white­wash. I hope to be proved wrong but excuses such as those offered up in defence of Eng­land – “lack of exper­i­ence on the sub-con­tin­ent” simply don’t wash. A 19-year-old with NO test exper­i­ence has just steam-rollered through you. Dink weer.
Daar is geen vinnige antwoord vir die Indië-reeks. You would have thought that Gary Bal­lance and Steven Finn would have played their last tests but a demand­ing forth­com­ing sched­ule will have saved them for now. Nie sou genoeg goeie verskyn vir die eise van toetskrieket.
Veel rus op die breë skouers van Ben Stokes. The Durham all-round­er showed his value to the team in both dis­cip­lines – espe­cially the ball – and must now be looked after to ensure burn out does not occur. His per­form­ances were one of the few good points for the three lions. It was good to see Ben Duck­ett at least make one knock of note – time will tell if he has the goods needed to suc­ceed long term.
With an eye on the longer term future the powers that be at the top of the Eng­lish hier­archy need to devel­op a strategy that seeks to equip Eng­lish bats­men with the skills needed to be able to play spin. Los­ing ten wick­ets for 64 runs as they did to sur­render the match is not accept­able in test match crick­et. They also need to find their own Has­an – Rashid, Batty, Ali and Ansari may be OK – but none of them are going to reg­u­larly win matches for their cap­tain. If Eng­land want to be the num­ber one side in the world they can’t just be win­ners at home and losers abroad.