Bangladesh spinner Taijul Islam, who claimed six for 135 against South Africa in the first innings of the Port Elizabeth Test, was seemingly irritated at a reporter’s question after the game.
Islam came in as a replacement for Taskin Ahmed in the second Test of the ongoing tour and straightaway made an impact as he snared six for 135 in his 50-over spell in the first innings.
Despite stepping up with the ball time and again, the left-arm spinner hasn’t managed to cement his place in the Bangladesh Test side in overseas conditions. One of the reasons for it being Bangladesh’s approach of playing three seamers in those conditions, and the second one is that Shakib Al Hasan provides the same skill set.
In a press conference after the second day’s play, Taijul was asked how he is going to fill the void left in the Bangladesh side due to Al Hasan’s absence. The 30-year-old clearly wasn’t amused by the question as he felt a comparison with Shakib was needless.
“Don’t you have any other question to ask me apart from it? Probably adding Shakib bhai’s name is more saleable,”
said Taijul.
The Bangladesh chief selector Minhajul Abedin said that playing three seamers wasn’t the only reason behind Taijul’s exclusion in overseas conditions but it’s about the batting depth as well.
“I don’t think Taijul is not making the Test XI because we are playing three pace bowlers. Rather what I feel is that we are playing eight batsmen, which is why he is not included,”
Abedin revealed, as per Cricbuzz.
He added that if Mehidy Hasan could bat at seven in these conditions, they can bring in Taijul and play with three seamers, two spinners when Shakib is not in the mix.
“If we put Miraj (Mehidy Hasan) at seven and bring Taijul at eight than we can accommodate three pace bowlers in the away Test along with the left-arm spinner (when Shakib is not around),”
he opined.
As far as the Port Elizabeth Test is concerned, the Bangla Tigers have a mountain to climb as they finished the second day on 139/5, trailing by 314 runs in the first innings.
