Aus vs Ban, 1st Test – Najmul Hossain Shanto – ‘Biggest win for Bangladesh in any format’

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto has unequivocally called their historic victory over Australia in the first Test in Darwin their “biggest win so far in any format.” Bangladesh, ranked ninth in Tests, shocked the world No. 1 Test side in their backyard in all departments and took an unassailable 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

It was only the third Test Bangladesh were playing on Australian soil and they trounced a full-strength Australian side, who are also leading the World Test Championship points table, by nine wickets.

“This is the biggest win so far for Bangladesh in any format,” Shanto said at the presentation. “Going forward, we will do something special in the future.

“Very happy and proud of myself and the way the boys played. We did lot of hard work and very happy to win.”

Shanto especially heaped praise on his fast bowlers, who took all 10 wickets in the first innings to bundle Australia for 198 before a five-for from Mehidy Hasan Miraz helped wrap up the hosts for 284 in the second attempt that gave Bangladesh a target of just 57.

“That [the rise of fast bowlers] is the biggest change in Bangladesh cricket in the Test format,” Shanto said. “Normally, five-six years ago, the pace bowlers didn’t want to play Test cricket since we didn’t play enough Test cricket. But in the last two-three years we’ve been playing lots of Test matches and the boys are giving importance to Test format.

“They now want to play, they want to perform because they want to be world-class. That is the mindset they now have. Especially the senior guys, like Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque, they helped them a lot to encourage to play more Test cricket. So those are the areas they think and mindset.”

Bangladesh’s memorable win was also set up by opener Tanzid Hasan’s 101 in the first innings which gave them an imposing lead of 228 by posting 426. This was only the second Test for Tanzid, who is 25 and made his debut in the format earlier this year at home against Pakistan.

“He’s exciting, if you look at his white-ball game, he always plays attacking cricket but in this Test match he showed his character, he was very calm and played according to the merit of the ball,” Shanto said of Tanzid. We all know he has that ability to play Test cricket and as top-order batsmen we want someone to [make an] impact for the team and he delivered in this match.”

Fast bowler Hasan Mahmud was named the Player of the Match for finishing with nine wickets that included a six-for in the first innings. “Before the match in every practice session we’ve been doing our best every day, in every session and we were focusing on the fact that whatever happens just believe in your process and don’t think about the outcome,” he said. “Whatever happens we have to play for five days and then the results will come.

“Our bowlers have done very well, with patience and they followed the process, hitting the line and length, and we knew the results would come.”

Bangladesh’s star on the fourth day was Mehidy for his 15th five-wicket haul in Tests. Mehidy had taken the big wicket of Steven Smith on the third evening and then added four more, fittingly taking the last one that sparked off boisterous celebrations in the team dugout.

“It was an excellent performance by our team and the way we played, it shows our character, everything was perfect,” Mehidy said. “After losing the practice match, we still had belief. We thought that it’s a great opportunity for us in these conditions, after a long time (23 years) we came here . They are a very good and world-class team, they have lots of good players and if we beat them it would be great for our country and our cricket. We knew we had to believe otherwise we can’t do it.

“I think we have to believe as a unit,” he further said looking ahead to the second Test that is six days away. “We have to think about how to perform in these conditions and as team we bowl well and bat well. Tanzim and Shadman [Islam], the way they batted in the first 10 overs, they showed their batting. And then Mominul [Haque], did very well and later on there were excellent partnerships between Hasan, Taskin and Taijul. We kept saying we have to stay there, even if they have a very good attack, play positive and don’t think about the bowling, like who is coming, and just play the ball.”

Bangladesh are having a stellar year in Tests, having won three of their four matches, all under their inspiring leader Shanto. “He is a very good captain and he makes very good decisions at the right time,” Mehidy said of his captain. “Everybody is happy back home. I think it’s a proud moment and they are enjoying. There was also a lot of Bangladeshi crowd here, thank you very much for coming and supporting us. they believed that we can win the match that’s why we won the match”

When asked if this victory gave Bangladesh the evidence to go 2-0 in Mackay, Shanto said: “We have that evidence but we need to play good cricket. As I had said before this Test match we have to play five days of good cricket, and again I’m going to say the same thing. As we did this Test match, follow the process, play session by session, bowlers did their job, batsmen chipped in and especially the lower middle order and lower order, the way they added. Those are the things we need to play in Mackay.”

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