On expected lines Bangladesh gave yet another listless performance in the second test played at Mirpur and even though Tanim Iqbal and Junaid Siddque starred in a brilliant double century stand the result was never in doubt because the entire cricketing world is aware of the fact that Bangladesh are only a wicket away from a batting collapse at any point of time in their innings  if one goes by their past records.

If records speak for themselves then let us have a look at the overall batting records of Bangladeshi batsmen.  After being accorded Test Status Bangladesh have played as many as 63 Tests and only 17 centuries have been recorded in these 63 Tests.  17 centuries in a possible 1200 plus innings speaks very poorly of their batsmen. Md Ashraful with 5 centuries, Habibur Bashar with 3 centuries and Tanim Iqbal with 2 centuries are the only batsmen to have recorded more than a century in their entire career. Former Bangladeshi skipper Habibur Bashar is the only batsmen to have a batting average of more than 30 prior to start of Mirpur Test.   Habibur Bashar finished his career with a batting average of 30.87 in 50 Tests.  No batsmen has managed to average more than 30 and their batting mainstay the very talented and gifted Ashraful averages a mere 23.09 after having played 100 innings. Many all rounders in world have a better batting average than the specialist batsmen of Bangladesh.

In the coming days much will be talked about Zaheer Khan who took a career best 7/87 and ten wickets in a match but the dark reality is that anybody in world cricket need not do anything special to get wickets against Bangladesh, because they are just thrown away and gifted to bowlers and in the past it was Irfan Patham and Zaheer has been the beneficiary this time around. A bowler just needs to bowl a specific quota of overs and wickets would come automatically except for a 50 plus or 100 plus partnership in between.  The fact it took India's pace spear head Zaheer Khan 70 Test Matches or 9 years and 80 days for his first ten wicket haul in Test Cricket is an indication that Bangladeshi batsmen do not value their wickets as much as batsmen of other international teams. If any team in the world is given a chance to tour or host Bangladesh they know it is a chance for them to make merry as the captains get a chance to improve thier captaincy records and bowlers get a chance to pick wickets and improve their bowling averages and strike rates and invariably the matches do not last the full duration of five days as was the case in Mirpur when the match was lost or to be precise surrendered in 3 1/2 days. It is high time that ICC warn the selectors of Bangladesh.  The selectors should be warned by the ICC to put up a decent batting line up or else be stripped of their Test Status or be relegated to playing teams like Zimbabwe