Tanzid Hasan Tamim vindicates selection gamble with historic ton

It was not surprising though considering the fact that Tanzid, who had cemented his place in white-ball cricket with an aggressor’s tag behind his back, never looked to be an option for longer-format cricket despite scoring five centuries and six half centuries in his 26-match first-class career, averaging 39.60.He demonstrated an aggressive mindset in domestic four-day matches with a strike-rate of 77.59 that hardly matches the criterion usually set for a Test opener, given that they are considered to play the grafter’s role more than anything else.

Tanzid could not capitalize on his chances when replaced injured opener Shadman Islam on his Test debut against Pakistan. His temperament as well as his technique came under scrutiny after he failed to impress, making 26 and 4 in the two innings. He made way for Shadman to return against Zimbabwe in the next Test that Bangladesh played prior to the ongoing series against Australia and his omission certainly suggested that he was not part of the bigger plan.

The out-of-form Mahmudul could not make a cut for the tour and Tanzid was drafted as Shadman’s opening partner, instead of bringing him as the third opener. The idea was that modern-day Test cricket was moving quickly, prompting the need to have an opener who could counterattack the bowlers. And in the process, provide the dressing room a breath of fresh air given how he makes things look simple.

Tanzid repaid Bashar’s faith by scoring his maiden Test hundred in only his second match in the format with his 101. Tanzid, who cruised to his first Test fifty off 102 balls with five boundaries, got a reprieve when Steve Smith dropped him off Nathan Lyon while batting on 61, played an attacking brand of cricket while closing in on his hundred.

The 25-year-old showed his composure when Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey came up to the stumps to stop him from stepping out of his crease and driving the ball on the up for boundaries. He instead opted to play late cuts and square drives off the Australian pacers a couple of times to find boundaries square of the wicket. Soon enough, he wrote his name into the history books when he became the first Bangladeshi to register a Test century on Australian soil.

“It’s a great opportunity to play here. I think this is very special for me, because this is the first time I am here and played Test cricket. Only the second [Test] of mine, and made a hundred. It’s very special for me,” Tanzid said after his landmark innings, adding that he was "very, very proud."

“What the team required, I was trying to play like that. I think the wicket looks good. They came to me very differently, and I was trying to play normal cricket and keep calm,” he said.

While many were surprised to find Tanzid coming up with a different batting template, it was hardly the case for former Bangladesh skipper Khaled Mahmud, who spotted him at his Bangla Trac Cricket Academy in Rajshahi as a teenager ahead of the Under-19 World Cup in 2020, who reckons Tanzid always had the defence to back his batting.

“A lot of players came from the Bogra region during that time and joined my academy in Rajshahi and that was the first time I saw him (Tanzid),” Mahmud told Cricbuzz.

“I was the chairman [of the BCB] and didn't notice Tamim and Hridoy's [Towhid Hridoy, who also worked with him in Bangla Trac] name after selection was done. Then I challenged the selectors a little bit, asking them why they were not selected, did they know them or saw them play?

“I said both are good U19 players. Then they were included and the rest is history as they played for the U19 team, became world champions, and now represent the Bangladesh team,” he said.

“His defence is strong. Mentally also he is a strong boy. Because of the T20 and one-day mentality he is always looking to score runs and play shots and carries a bit of a different mindset.

“But technically he's good and he can play all the shots from the cover drive to the square drive as well as pull and hook shots and there is supposed to be no problem with his technique [to play longer-format cricket],” he said.

“It was a dominating hundred,” Mahmud added. “The way he batted and hit shots all across the park, he didn't play a bad shot. We saw a totally different Tamim from T20s and one-dayers as he used to play cross-batted shots [in white-ball cricket]. In this Test he did no such thing.

“He played such a beautiful innings. I always had the belief in Tamim that he could play a big innings like this. He is a quality player, he normally doesn't get to think like this in Test matches since we played him in T20s and one-dayers, so his attitude was more in tune with limited-overs cricket. But he will now change having played Test cricket. This kind of an innings is a big plus point for the team - the runs will come and the opponent team will be under pressure,” he said.

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