Enforcer Ebadot too hot for Afghanistan

Just before the Test against Afghanistan, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurasingha talked about the benefits of sticking with Najmul Hossain Shanto and Ebadot Hossain since 2017. These two have been criticised heavily for their poor performances in the past. But now they are the regular performers of the team after years of investment in them. On the first day, it was all Shanto with his stellar hundred. And Ebadot stole the limelight on the second day, picking up four Afghan wickets to put the Tigers comfortably in the driver's seat. 

Ebadot's four-for helped the Tigers bundle the visitors out for 146 which meant the hosts had a 236-run lead in the first innings. He would have loved a five-wicket haul. It would be his second in Tests, and also only the second by a Bangladeshi bowler in Mirpur. 

The Sylhet Rocket has been the second-most successful bowler in 2023. His nine wickets in three Test innings is the second-highest after Taijul Islam (11). He has bagged 19 wickets across all formats so far, only behind Taskin Ahmed (21). His overall average is pretty staggering too (15.33).

Ebadot has worked hard on his bowling. He admitted on Thursday that he tried too many bouncers and inswingers or outswingers in the past. But now he tries to set a batter up with full deliveries before a surprise bouncer. He followed the same formula on Thursday and that brought him success. All his four wickets were off bouncers, but he set the batters up prior to those 'surprise' bouncers. 

"I didn't get the wickets for continuous bouncers. I set them up by bowling full deliveries and then bowled a surprise bouncer. The thing is, I used to try inswingers outswingers or bouncers twice or thrice in a single over, now I'm trying bowl according to a plan. And the wicket helped too," Ebadot said after the second day's play. 

Bangladesh ended the second day with a massive 370-run lead. Shanto and Zakir Hasan continued the Tigers' one-sided dominance after Ebadot's four-for. 

Shanto continued his stellar form with an unbeaten hundred after a brilliant hundred on the first day. Zakir, after getting out early in the first innings, made the most of his opportunity on Thursday. Both the batters reached their fifties and built an unbeaten partnership of 116 runs. And they both bagged 54 runs so far with each playing 64 balls.

But Bangladesh had a nightmarish start on the second day.  They lost their remaining five wickets and managed to add only 20 runs to their overnight score. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mushfiqur Rahim both missed their half-centuries despite both of them remaining unbeaten in their 40s on Wednesday. 

Nijat Masood had a banger with the ball picking up his maiden five-for in his debut Test. Yamin Ahmadzai bagged a brace to accompany Nijat in the destruction. 

The first session was dominated by pacers from both sides. After Nijat and Yamin picked up wickets for fun, Bangladeshi pacers came in and wreaked havoc. 

Apart from Ebadot's four-for, Shoriful Islam and the spinning duo of Miraz and Taijul bagged a brace each.