With India reeling at 213 for 8 on the First Day of the First Test being played at Chittagong, Sehwag's comments on Bangladeshi teams inability to bowl out opposition twice in a Test Match has taken centrestage.
It is not right to say anything uncomplimentary about a rival player or a rival team and Sehwag has erred in making uncomplimentary comments against Bangladeshi bowlers. A player like Sehwag is truly one among the greats of the game, actually should have words of encouragement for the Bangladesh players. Bangladesh is a very young team and many players in team would have been looking upto Sehwag as a idol and a role model and those comments would have really hurt them. Not only players even youngsters in Bangladesh aspiring to make it to the national team would have been disappointed with Sehwag's criticism of their national players.
Bangladesh have definitely dominated the first day of the Test and there is a possibility that they were hurt by Sehwag's comments and put in a inspired show to prove him wrong or it is also possible that their performance has not got to do anything with the comments for they were not taken seriously but still there is some truth in Sehwag's comments which cannot be ignored by any means. While Bangladesh have put up inspired performances in one dayers and won few matches against top teams, their performances in Tests have been very ordinary. Bangladesh could have done much better in Tests given the talent they have but they have always faltered and the reason for that is lack of depth and discipline in their batting. In Md Ashraful they have one of the best batsmen in the world and yet he averages a mere 20 plus in Tests because invariably he throws away his wicket after having the bowlers at his mercy. That is how the rest of the batting as they believe in dominating bowlers over shorter periods whereas the actual requirement in Test Matches is to curb natural instincts and play session by session for most part of five days.
Bangladesh have some genuine talent in their team as they have bolwers like Mortaza and batsmen like Ashraful and Aftab and in Shakib Al Hassan they have a genuine all rounder who is probably the best in the world right now and a skipper who leads by example. Bangladesh should first aim at addressing their biggest problem and that is lasting five full days in a Test Match and to achieve that objective they have to play session by session. Once they last five full days they are assured of atleast a draw and once they manage to draw matches, they get the confidence to force wins.
As an Indian fan it is too early to predict the outcome of the Test Match based on first days performances because there are 4 full days and 12 full sessions left in the Test Match but if you are an Bangladesh fan one has to look beyond this Test Match and Test Series and even if Bangladesh manage to win this Test Match and Test Series they still have a lot to do to prove Sehwag wrong.