Your First Test XI

[Imtiaz]

I think the selection has now become fairly academic. The following would be mine:

Javed Omar
Shahriyar Nafees
Tushar Imran
Mohammad Ashraful
Habibul Bashar
Aftab Ahmed
Khaled Mashud
Mohammad Rafique
Syed Rasel
Shahadat Hossain / Talha Zubair / Rana or Anyone
Enamul Haque Jnr

I could not care less who is selected for the second seamer spot. Frankly, I would even prefer to take Rana and open the bowling for a few overs with Aftab who probably swings the ball more than those mentioned above as the second seamer. I am not sure why the original Manjural Islam was ever dropped. He, at least, maintained a decent line and length.

Above all, I sincerely hope that Junior would prove all his detractors wrong, particularly Dav !

Bashar should go in at No.5 as his eye is no longer what it used to be. As such he is particularly vulnerable to the moving ball. Therefore, No.3 should no longer be his position. His recent improvement came after going in at No.5 from the second innings at Chester le Street.

Tushar performed reasonably in the one dayers in England and very well for the "A" team. I don't know why Dav messed up the line up which had settled quite nicely.

Edited on, September 10, 2005, 7:35 PM GMT, by Imtiaz.

[roaring tigerz]

my team batting order wise:

javed omar
shahriar nafees
tushar imran
mohammed ashraful
habibul bashar
aftab ahmed
khaled mashud
mohammed rafique
syed rassel
shahadat hossain
enamul haq

[Rubu]

My XI is below: I know many of you will be surprised, but i believe thats the best we can do:

1. Javed Omar
   
2. Nafees Iqbal
   
3. Shahriar Nafis
   
4. Mohammad Ashraful
   
5. Habibul Bashar
   
6. Aftab Ahmed
   
7. Khaled Masud
   
8. Manjarul Rana
   
9. Mohammad Rafique
   
10. Syed Russel
    
11. Enamul Jr
    

Before you throw away this idea, lemme clear a few things.

Aftab and Russel Opens. Given that aftab might struggle with his form, let use him as a bowler in this hard situation, until the real ones come back.

Talha might have been a good bowler before his injury, but he is not even close to a quality bowler after his come back. He needs time to deserve to play in national team.

Shahadat might have speed but lack in brain. Until he realize that speed kills unless u can control it, and start working on variation and swing, he is not gonna be useful. I'd say he need at least another six month before he grow up.

Spinners are our strength. Try what we have. Surely, they are not gonna do any worse than our pacers.

Remember what our pacers did in england? that was pacer friendly pitch. well, this one is not.

Sure we need a 3rd pacer. but we don't have any. we would use it if we had, but right now, this is the best team possible.

S. Nafis comes at number 3. If openers fail he can play as opener. And if openers does good, he can be there to make murali uncomfortable.

Edited on, September 10, 2005, 10:06 PM GMT, by Rubu.

[James90]

You can not go into a test with 1 specialised seamer and Aftab opening the attack.

Team should be:

Javed Omar
Shahriah Nafees
Aftab Ahmed
Habibul Bashar
Mohammad Ashraful
Tushar Imran
Khaled Mashud
Mohammad Rafique
Syed Rasel
Enamul Haque Jnr
Shahadat Hossain
---------------------------
Manjural Islam Rana

Tushar should bat at 6 as that is where he's most comfortable and I feel he shouldn't be exposed to the new ball. Aftab has done well at 3 and could potentially get us off to a good start. Tushar and Mashud should be able to steady the innings if there's a top order collapse.

We must go in with two specialist seamers. Rasel has been promising so far this series and deserves to be included. I would pick Pilot as a fast bowler before I would pick Talha so that one's also pretty straight forward.

We'll be expecting the pitch to spin and Enamul can use that better than Rana. We need to get wickets and bowl them out if we're to have any chance of anything and Enamul has already shown he is capable of bowling sides out. Rana has the advantage of being able to bat but Rafique's not a bad number 8 and we need to have faith in the batsmen for once

[cricman]

I like Tushar and Pilot batting together at the bottom any runs we get from Rafique down should be considered extras so the pressure will be high on the Top 7.

I'd like to see us take the punch to Lanka when we bat, If Javed can do what he did vs England I can picture us having a good brisk opening Partnership of 60 to 70 runs. Hopefully Ash and learned that patience is good from the practice match and from Hayden.

Those 2 are so good they can turn a SR of 40 from 150 balls and in an instant can trun it into a SR of 60 - 70 from 220 balls.

our 12th man sould be a good fielder so no Rana! if Rajin was here he'd be my # 12 but since he's not playing Nafees Iqbal can feild for us.

Javed Omar
Shahriah Nafees
Aftab Ahmed
Habibul Bashar
Mohammad Ashraful
Tushar Imran
Khaled Mashud
Mohammad Rafique
Syed Rasel
Enamul Haque Jnr
Shahadat Hossain

Nafees Iqbal

[Rubu]

You can not go into a test with 1 specialised seamer and Aftab opening the attack.

ha ha ha.....

what if you don't have anything better than that?

Aftab, at this moment, is surely better bowler than talha or shahadat.

and write this down: our spinners will give less run opening with the new ball than talha and shahadat. and none of them will take wicket.

so, u wanna go with spinners or pacers.... choice is yours.

[Rubu]

btw, I said long before the ODIs when people were talking about getting tushar back in the test team, that after the odi there will not be any talk about getting tushar back in test team.

i was wrong

but his odi scores were not much better than i predicted.

[cricman]

I think Tushars patient partnership with pilot is why many of us are picking him into the Test squad.

[SS]

Rasel is injured too!!!!
I guess chacha will open now or we gota call back musfiq babu

[Spitfire_x86]

Originally posted by Rubu
but his odi scores were not much better than i predicted.

At least he played Murali quite well

[Mahir]

the injuries to Mashrafe and Tapash has turned all calculations and predictions upside-down. And am I hearing that Rasel is injured as well ? God forbid, NO!

There've been quite a few suggested line up for the first Test, and some are very logical orders. If I was in the selection panel, I would prefer the following :

Openers :
Javed Omar and Nafees Iqbal

- Javed is the obvious choice. N. Iqbal is completely out of form, but he is due to deliver and you can't sit him out for it. He IS part of the team's future. Shahriar Nafees was not in the original plan of the management to play in the Test, and it still seems like that. He can always come back in the 2nd test, say, if N Iqbal gets a pair in this match.

Middle-order :
Habibul Bashar, Md Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Tushar Imran, Khaled Mashud (wk).

- These are easy choices. BD do need a batting-heavy lineup, as they HAVE to pile on as much runs as possible in the first innings, regardless of who bats first. The order is what's the concern now : I prefer the way I have put it. Having Aftab at no 3 should only be practiced in ODIs; in tests, his position should be like Flintoff's, and thats how Aftab plays : aggressively.

Bowlers :
Md Rafique, Enamul Haq Jr, Syed Rasel, Shahadat Hossain.

- This where the most confusion is. Rafique is a fix, given that he is fit to play. If not, Manjarul Rana replaces him, simple as that. Enamul is playing, and there's no question in that. Rasel has been bowling well upto this point, and he, alongside Shahadat, has fared very well in the A-team's recent England tour. Many might question Rasel's inclusion, given that he'd be thrown right onto the face of the Lankan lions, just like Shahadat was against the ruthless English batsmen. But injuries to our strike bowlerS have left no other option to ponder upon. Well, I tried my best not to bring in Shahadat at this point, since he needs to make quite a few adjustments before coming into international level again, but who'd play instead of him ? Rana ? That'd give three spinners if Rafique plays. But then you cant just play a Test with only Rasel and Aftab as your two seamers! Shahadat just have to bowl the best he can. Hopefully he wont disappoint.

Man! Now some of us really wish that Tapash was there at least.

12th man :
Rana or S Nafees.

Heck! now some more of us really wish that Rajin was available too, to be the 12th fielder atleast.

[Rubu]

S. Nafees is a must, masterblaster. he might open the 2nd innigns in case NI fails miserably in the first innings. Russel is a must as well. I just don't think shahadat and talha worth a penny (shahadat is not getting a raise in at least 6 months, don't know about talha)

[CricTiger]

Just want to share something .Nomatter what BD XI is do you think SL will try to break this record ?

"The opening Test will be the first at the R. Premadasa Stadium in eight years and the home side have some happy memories of the venue. It was where Sri Lanka piled up a massive 952, a world record in Test cricket, against India in 1997.

Sanath Jayasuriya hammered 340 in that match and added 576 for the second wicket with Roshan Mahanama (225), the highest partnership for any wicket in Tests. " ..CricInfo

[James90]

I don't think they'll have a patience. Then again Trescothick made mince meat of us just swinging aimlessly. It shall be interesting

[Mahir]

Originally posted by Rubu
S. Nafees is a must, masterblaster. he might open the 2nd innigns in case NI fails miserably in the first innings.

well, looks like Tushar will be the odd man out if both Nafees are to play this match. It really doesnt matter here, since the bowling department is whats left in disarray for those injuries. And yes, Rassel has to play too, and I never hinted that Talha would join Shahadat to open the attack!

we'll see soon how things unfold at RPS...