Bangladesh’s historic Test victory over Australia has been followed by one of the most brutal batting collapses in their history, with the visitors bowled out for just 64 in the first innings of the second Test in Mackay on Saturday.
Mitchell Starc ripped through the Bangladesh batting order with extraordinary figures of 6/12 from 10 overs, beginning the destruction with the very first ball of the Test. Bangladesh slumped to 12/5 and later 39/9 before a 25-run last-wicket partnership between Taijul Islam and Shoriful Islam dragged them beyond their own all-time low.
Even that resistance could not prevent a collection of unwanted records. The 64 is Bangladesh’s fourth-lowest total in Test cricket, behind only their 43 against West Indies in 2018, 53 against South Africa in 2022 and 62 against Sri Lanka in 2007.
More significantly in the context of the ongoing series, it is comfortably their lowest Test total against Australia. Their previous worst against the Australians was 97 at Darwin in 2003, meaning the record has now been lowered by 33 runs. It is also Bangladesh’s lowest Test total on Australian soil.
Bangladesh top six manage just 14 runs
The scale of the collapse was particularly stark at the top of the order. Shadman Islam, Tanzid Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Litton Das were all dismissed for ducks, while Mominul Haque made nine and Mushfiqur Rahim five. Bangladesh’s top six therefore contributed only 14 runs between them. Four of the first five batters failed to score at all, leaving Bangladesh in danger of threatening their lowest Test score of 43 when the ninth wicket fell at 39.
The final pair at least ensured that did not happen. Taijul and Shoriful added 25 runs for the tenth wicket, a partnership that accounted for almost 40 per cent of Bangladesh’s entire total. Remarkably, No.11 Shoriful ended as Bangladesh’s outright top scorer with 14.
That placed him in an extremely rare group. There have been only a handful of instances in Test history of a No.11 finishing as his team’s outright highest scorer. Shoriful’s 14 also matched the lowest score by a No.11 to finish as his team’s top scorer in a completed Test innings.
The 64 additionally ranks among the lowest totals ever recorded in a Test in Australia. Only ten completed innings on Australian soil have been lower, putting Bangladesh’s collapse alongside some of the most infamous batting failures seen in the country. Outside India’s 36 all out at Adelaide in 2020, no visiting side had been dismissed for fewer than 64 in Australia since Pakistan were bowled out for 62 at Perth in 1981.
Starc produces devastating opening spell
At the centre of the carnage was Starc. The left-arm quick struck with the first delivery of the Test and proceeded to take all of Bangladesh’s first five wickets. His opening spell read an astonishing 6-1-5-5 as Bangladesh’s innings effectively disintegrated before it had begun.
Starc eventually returned to dismiss Shoriful and complete figures of 6/12. His first-ball wicket also added another entry to his remarkable collection of opening-over records. Starc has now taken a wicket with the first ball of a Test on four occasions, more than any other bowler, while his tally of wickets in the opening over of Test matches has also moved beyond James Anderson’s mark.
The collapse is made more extraordinary by what Bangladesh achieved only days earlier. In the opening Test at Darwin, they posted 426 in their first innings before defeating Australia by nine wickets for their first Test victory on Australian soil. Their next first innings has now ended at 64. That represents a staggering 362-run fall between consecutive first-innings totals: 426 to 64.
Bangladesh had already shown extreme volatility on the tour, having been bowled out for just 54 in a warm-up match before producing their 426-run effort in the first Test. But this was a different level of collapse. From the high of a historic victory in Darwin to four ducks in their top five, a No.11 top-scoring and their lowest-ever Test total against Australia, Bangladesh’s second Test began with one of the most humiliating batting performances in their history.
