Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto has lauded his teammates after his national team’s first Test win in Australia. It’s important to note that Bangladesh had a major mindset shift in honing pace bowling skills rather than relying only on spin of late.
Notably, this is also Bangladesh’s second win over Australia in seven Tests, after the 2017 Mirpur Test victory. Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Shanto revealed Bangladesh’s biggest mindset shift, which helped them to defeat the hosts.
“Very happy and proud of myself and the way boys played, really proud of that. And we did a lot of hard work and really happy to win with this side,” Najmul Hossain Shanto said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Yes, obviously I think that is the biggest change in Bangladesh cricket in the Test format. Normally, five, six years before, the pace bowlers didn’t want to play Test cricket because we didn’t get enough chance to play Test cricket. But last two, three years we’ve been playing a lot of Test matches and boys are getting importance in the Test format. So they now want to play and they want to perform because they want to be world class. So that is the mindset they have there and especially the senior guys we have, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mominul Haque, they help them a lot to encourage to play Test cricket,” he added.
Delving into the details of the game, Australia could score only 198 runs in the first innings as Hasan Mahmud scalped a six-wicket haul. In reply, Bangladesh scored 426 runs, taking an impressive lead. In the third innings, Australia scored only 284 runs. In the chase, Bangladesh crossed the winning line in 14.2 overs with nine wickets in hand.
“I think this is the biggest win so far for Bangladesh cricket in any format. We believe that, and going forward we will do something special in the future,” he concluded.
