We did not get the wicket we expected, Shanto points finger at curators

Did Bangladesh then fail to read the Sylhet Test wicket? Anyone listening to captain Najmul Hossain Shanto at the press conference after the drawn Test would ask that question.

Batters dominated all five days of the drawn Test. The pacers got some help early on with the ball, yet on such a wicket the hosts played three spinners and two pacers.

Bangladesh's decision was heavily criticised throughout the match, and after the barren draw Shanto too had to face such questions. The captain shifted the blame to the curators.

After being bowled out for 356 in the first innings, West Indies declared their second innings at 398 for 6. Bangladesh's spinners took eight of the visitors' 16 fallen wickets, but the wickets taken by Miraz and Taijul could not stop West Indies from posting big totals.

Even so, Shanto seemed to shield the spinners. He said, 'Our plan was to play on a spin-friendly wicket. You will see, in both matches we played with three spinners and two pacers.'

Shanto said, 'I do not think we lost the first match because of the conditions. Rather, we could not do well in batting, bowling and fielding — all three departments. That is why we lost the match. I think the plan was right, but as I said a little earlier, the plan was not implemented properly.'

He added, 'I will not say we fully got the kind of conditions we wanted or expected in Sylhet. So in terms of planning, we were perhaps a little behind.'

Shanto claimed the team did not know about the conditions. He said, 'We did not want such conditions. If the conditions were like this, perhaps we could have played an extra pacer. Our thinking was that the wicket would perhaps start turning from the beginning. But unfortunately, that did not happen either.'

Shanto said that if such conditions are to be created in future, there must be better discussion with those concerned, and more accurate and planned work must be done on how to bring the conditions in their favour.

The draw in the Sylhet Test was itself a big gain for Bangladesh. Despite being on the edge in the first innings, the hosts took the lead thanks to Tawhid Hridoy, although the result of the match did not go in Najmul Hossain Shanto's team's favour.

Play had to be stopped a little early on the fifth day of the second Bangladesh-West Indies Test due to bad light. Some still held a slight hope that play would resume, but it could not be restarted afterwards.