Sadman's Century Marred by Regret: 'The Total Could Have Been 450 or 500'

Shadman Islam has ended a long wait with the third century of his Test career, but the Bangladesh left-handed opener is not at ease despite the personal milestone. His regret is that had he made the innings bigger after reaching his hundred, Bangladesh's total could have been 450 or even 500.

Bangladesh were bowled out for 272 on Thursday (29 October), the second day of the first Test against the West Indies at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur. Shadman, unbeaten on 99 overnight, completed his century early on the second day, but debutant pacer Joshua Bishop ended his innings at 105. Bangladesh then lost wickets quickly and squandered the chance of a big total.

Speaking after the day's play, Shadman expressed regret about his own innings and the team's batting, saying the score could have looked very different had the top-order batters played big innings.

"Of course, we should have done better here. If we could have taken the top-order runs to 150, 170 or 200, the team total might have reached 450 or 500. We made mistakes. God willing, when such a situation comes again, we will try to play as big an innings as possible," he said.

On getting out soon after his century, Shadman said the batters' mistakes and the West Indies' good bowling, rather than the wicket, played the bigger role in Bangladesh's collapse.

Asked about Tawhid Hridoy's dismissal, he said the ball Hridoy got out to looked like one that could be hit; Hridoy plays such shots and scores runs off them. He did not think the wicket was to blame, saying the opponents bowled well while Bangladesh also made some mistakes. He added that if he and Litton could have built a partnership, the situation might have been different.

In recent years Shadman had scored regularly but struggled to convert fifties into centuries, falling short of a big innings several times after passing seventy. This time he crossed that barrier and reached three figures.

He said he always wondered why he kept getting out at a certain point, and that he has worked a lot on it in recent days. Thinking fitness might be an issue, he worked hard on his fitness, and he also spoke to several people about the shortcomings in his batting, with Ashraful and Salahuddin offering advice. He hopes to see the benefit of that work ahead.

On the role of openers in Test cricket, Shadman said that if the openers handle the new ball well, the job becomes much easier for the batters below. Such challenges have to be taken on, he said, adding that in the coming matches the aim will be to build good opening partnerships and push the runs forward. He said they talk with Tamim about how to build opening stands and advance the score.

Shadman is not satisfied with the first-innings total of 272, but he sees a chance to bowl the West Indies out quickly if Bangladesh's bowlers bowl in good areas. The more the lead, the better for Bangladesh, he said, adding that bowling well after reading the wicket on Friday morning would be the goal.

After Shadman's 105 and Tawhid Hridoy's 42, no one else made a major contribution in Bangladesh's first innings. West Indies left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican took five wickets for 53 runs to trigger the collapse, while Joshua Bishop and Shamar Joseph took two wickets each. The West Indies began their reply confidently, leaving Bangladesh's bowlers with the main responsibility of bringing the hosts back into the match.