Bangladesh fans don't really know what it's like to see their fast bowlers rattle opponents at a home Test. They were never a side that had a genuine fast bowling attack in their first decade, which led to a period between 2016 and 2020 when the team management decided to show the door to fast bowling at home. When Afghanistan last played a Test here in 2019, Bangladesh didn't even field a specialist seamer.
The circumstances have certainly changed. Bangladesh's fast bowling has progressed so much in the last two and a half years that the Shere Bangla National Stadium curator, Gamini Silva - seemingly following instructions from the team management - put out a green top with pace, bounce and carry in the one-off Test against Afghanistan this week.
There was turn on the pitch from the first day too, but the fast bowlers from both sides have outperformed spinners. They have combined to take 13 wickets, including eight in the first session on the second day. Nijat Masood took a five-wicket debut haul, before Ebadot Hossain snared four wickets.
Such scenes are a rarity at this venue which is well-known for dishing out regular raging turners. But with the fast bowling unit improving in all formats, the Bangladesh think-tank showed that they have belief in them.
Ahead of this Test, Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe said that they want to see how their different skillsets can give them options over five days of a Test match. It was during Hathurusinghe's first reign as head coach when Bangladesh team management wanted only raging turners at home. It paid off with maiden Test wins over England and Australia but they lost to Afghanistan, West Indies and Sri Lanka using the same tactics. It was becoming too predictable.
"We had a pitch in our favour so we wanted to make best use of it. The rest is up to the team management. I think if we keep bowling well at home, the team management can have confidence in us" Ebadot Hossain
On Thursday, it was Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam and Ebadot Hossain who blazed away in the hot afternoon. Left-arm quick Shoriful opened the floodgates with two crucial strikes before Ebadot bounced out four of the batters. Taskin didn't get wickets but he's the natural leader of this attack, and wickets are often around the corner for the 28-year old tearaway.
Ebadot looked the most hostile of the Bangladesh bowlers, either attacking the stumps or bowling quick bouncers to keep the batters guessing. He said that the idea was to use the bouncer a surprise weapon.
"I think this is the first time that we got this type of wicket (at home)," Ebadot said. "We were lucky to have three fast bowlers playing here. We tried to bowl them out for as less a total as possible. I am happy that we could stick to our plan. We extracted bounce out of the wicket. We cannot plan for it. We tried to make use of the pace and bounce of the wicket. They found it tough.
"I didn't get my wickets just by bowling bouncers. I set up the batter with full balls before surprising them with a bouncer. I have grabbed this plan slowly. Before I used to bowl two or three bouncers an over after bowling inswingers and outswingers. But now I could do execute a plan of surprising the batter due to the wicket."
Ebadot said that the unit is trying to match up to the world standards of fast bowling's effectiveness at the highest level. He said that the more they have performances that help the team win, the more confidence the team management will have in them.
"Our pace bowling department have improved a lot in the last three years. I am not saying that we are the finished product but our graph is going upward in this period. We want to do consistently well. We have been able to grab the fast bowling dominating mindset of world cricket.
"The fast bowlers did well in this good wicket. The match isn't over. We have bowled only one innings. We want to do better in the second innings. We were all confident that we could do well in this game. We had a pitch in our favour so we wanted to make best use of it. The rest is up to the team management. I think if we keep bowling well at home, the team management can have confidence in us," he said.
Ebadot said that he didn't regret not taking the five-for, as the captain Litton Das was having to catch up to a slow over rate. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam shared the last three wickets.
"I am okay with not getting five wickets. We were two overs behind so the captain employed spinners from both ends. He told me that I won't be bowling since we needed to make up for the overs. Team comes first for me, more than my personal goals," he said.
Ebadot also had another bit of good news during this spell of 4-47. His bowling average has gone down to less than 50 for the first time in his Test career. It has taken him 20 Tests in four years to get to this level. These four years have also seen Bangladesh changing its perception about fast bowling. When was the last time you saw the wicketkeeper collecting the ball around his chest for two days in Mirpur?