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When Mehidy Hasan Miraz approaches the crease, he exudes confidence, possibly even hubris. His eyes are wide in his stance as he thrusts his chest out.
However, that confidence is not usually shared by the audience early in his innings. He plays one or two shadow-leaves after the odd soaring drive. He will then leave the ball a couple of times before hammering uppishly past point or edging one through the slips. Your nerves are in ruins when his team is struggling at 26 for 6 or 112 for 6.
You can appreciate the confidence Mehidy has after you get adjusted to his batting style, which is first scratchy before quickly becoming more solid. He gains confidence in his strokes and footwork. There is a sense of serenity that is badly required in a batting lineup that keeps breaking down for Bangladesh.
After the third day of the first Test match against South Africa, Mehidy is batting at his best score of 2024, 87. Using Nos. 8 or 7, he has achieved four fiftys this year. He now averages more than 50 runs this year and has surpassed Mominul Haque to become Bangladesh’s top run scorer in 2024.
Mehidy has repeatedly made huge stands and walked into challenging circumstances. He entered the third innings at 106 for 5 in Dhaka, which swiftly escalated to 112 for 6. After that, he and Jaker Ali added 138 runs for the seventh wicket. Bangladesh lost all hope when Litton Das was caught behind off Keshav Maharaj at sixth out on the third morning. A fair assessment of the gap between the two teams during the first two days and a half at the Shere Bangla National Stadium was that they were 90 runs from losing an innings.
No one was expecting a Rawalpindi rerun when Jaker joined Mehidy. Mehidy had turned the tide of consecutive Test matches on that memorable Pakistan trip by appearing in two historic seventh-wicket stands, first with Mushfiqur Rahim and later with Litton. With Bangladesh 26 for 6, the partnership with Litton was especially vulnerable.
It wasn’t any different here. Fortunately for Bangladesh, Mehidy was joined at the crease by Jaker, a specialist batter who was making his debut. The seventh-wicket partnership soon grasped the wicket’s pace and didn’t appear scratchy for very long. Jaker subsequently stated that they were aware that they only needed to remain and relax inside the crease.
In domestic cricket, Jaker has a solid reputation as a middle-order batsman, but he was under pressure following a hasty dismissal in the opening innings. Mushfiqur had picked it up in the team hotel on the second evening, and it had been playing in his head. When he batted in the second innings, Jaker reminded himself of what the senior pro had said after Mushfiqur had reassured him. He struck seven fours and scored 58 off 111 balls.
Mehidy is benefiting from a lengthy training session in May and June, during which he was not part in the preparations for or campaign for Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup. In addition, he had the opportunity to take July and August off prior to the Pakistan trip. Despite not scoring many runs in the two Test matches in India, Dhaka has demonstrated that he is still in form.
For a Bangladeshi team that has had trouble producing top-order contributions, it is a boon. This year, there have only been two half-century stands and no century partnerships for the first two wickets. In the meantime, Mehidy has played in all three of the century stands for the seventh wicket.
With Mehidy still at the crease, Bangladesh leads by 81 at the close of the third day in Dhaka thanks to the most recent of them. Although some rain is predicted, Bangladesh will get a second chance if he can persuade the final three wickets to increase the advantage to at least 150. Although it is a bit of a stretch, Mehidy is probably the only member of this lineup who can accomplish such a feat.