Mehdi Hasan Miraj has led Bangladesh for the first time in Tests even though he has captained it in ODIs before. Bajimat did the captaincy at the beginning of the royal version of cricket. Under his leadership, Bangladesh won the Test after 15 years in the West Indies. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Director Nazmul Abedin Fahim praised Miraj's leadership.
When Bangladesh won the second Test of the series by 101 runs in Jamaica yesterday afternoon, it was midnight in distant Bangladesh. Miraj is basking in praise after this remarkable win. He scored the second highest 146 runs in the two-match Test series. He took 5 wickets in bowling.
He also took a great catch in the fielding. He understood the situation of the match and used the bowlers. Taijul Islam, Nahid Rana, Taskin Ahmed have repaid the captain's trust.
After losing the first test in Antigua, when Bangladesh's batting was overwhelmed in the first innings of the second test (164 all out), Mirage did not understand it. Bangladesh took a lead of 18 runs by bowling out Windies for 146 runs. In a low-scoring match, nothing like that energizes the team. In the end, Bangladesh ended the 2-match Test series with a 1-1 draw. Impressed with Miraj, BCB director Faheem told the media at BCB's media building today, 'I think Miraj has played a very good role. I have seen a lot of times in the bowling change, suddenly the bowling has changed. The pair also broke up. I think even under pressure it didn't have too much of a negative impact on the decision making. I saw Miraj positively. Seen positive even under pressure. Able to keep the team strong. Which is very important. At times it may seem that the couple is becoming, it is a matter of giving up. How many runs are they able to hit a little bit? Not that I am too stressed about these things.'
Mirage also changed his batting order. Batting at number six-seven, Mirage came up to number four in the second innings of the second Test. Scored 42 runs off 39 balls. Miraj contributed to a partnership of 70 runs off 74 balls with Sadman Islam for the third wicket. Sadman-Miraj hit back-to-back fours to unsettle the West Indies. Praising Miraj's leadership, Fahim said, 'Positively took decisions and that's probably why they were able to put the opposition under pressure and take wickets. All in all I think I saw very good captaincy from Mirage. A very good performance from everyone and the whole team looked like they were playing desperately to win. Of course there is the achievement of captaincy. Team management has merit. Very cool.'
As Nazmul Hossain was not calm, Mirage began his captaincy in international cricket with the third ODI of the series against Afghanistan. Bangladesh's star all-rounder now has the responsibility of leading the ODI series against the West Indies. There will be three ODIs of the Bangladesh-West Indies series on December 8, 10 and 12.
