Stats: Top 10 highest partnerships for Bangladesh in Test cricket

Despite failure at the limited-overs format, Test cricket for Bangladesh has been kind recently. The last time Bangladeshi fans were happy was when the team drew the series against England in October. Today they were excited after a splendid performance in the first Test vs New Zealand, credit to a brilliant partnership between Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim.

Bangladesh registered their highest partnership for the team in Test cricket with a 359-run stand. Shakib’s legend continues as he scored his maiden double century in Tests. He also went on to record the highest individual score for a Bangladeshi in the longest format of the game – 217 at a strike rate of 78.62. Whereas, Mushfiqur Rahim who has had a history of being the anchor of the innings as well as building partnerships for them in the recent past, continued to do the same today.

The 312 runs partnership between Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes in April 2015 against Pakistan at Khulna was their highest ever partnership until today, the day which’ll go down in Bangladesh cricket as one of their memorable ones. Mushfiqur Rahim was involved in one of the similar feats back in 2013 when he, along with Mohammad Ashraful built a 5th wicket 267-run partnership at Galle against Sri Lanka.

In 2014, Sri Lanka was again a victim of a blitzkrieg in the form of a 232 runs stand between Shamsur Rahman and Imrul Kayes at Chittagong. That is so far No. 4 in the list of top 10 highest partnerships for the Bangladesh Test team. Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes have been some of the most important players in the Team and have been contributors in 4 of the 10 partnerships each.

Also read- Stats: Players who have scored a century in their 100th Test

The partnership that holds the record rank No. 5 is one that involves both Iqbal and Kayes which was a first wicket partnership of 224 runs against Zimbabwe at Chittagong in November 2014. Tamim Iqbal makes it to the list yet again alongside Junaid Siddique for their 200-run partnership against India at Dhaka in 2010. In July 2007, at Colombo, Mohammad Ashraful and Mushfiqur Rahim scored a 6th wicket 191-run partnership against Sri Lanka.

Back in 2006, Shahriar Nafees and Habibul Bashar stitched a 187-run partnership at Fatullah against Australia. Though that was about to be taken over by the Tamim Iqbal-Imrul Kayes partnership at Lord’s in 2010, it fell short of 2 runs. Mahmudullah and Abul Hassan’s 9th wicket partnership of 184 runs is the last feature in the table.

The record books establish that Bangladesh must still have to overcome a lot to make a spot of their own; they have indeed come a long way. Today, the Shakib-Mushfiqur duo made it their day, and that should please their fans who keep track of their team’s progress, records and performances very passionately.

Here is the list of highest partnerships for Bangladesh in Test cricket:

(All stats updated till 13th January, 2017)