The young Bangladeshi has out-bowled the tourists' struggling spinners on a seriously wearing pitch, says the Analyst...
The state of English spin bowling has been put into stark perspective in this first Test.
Three English spinners, one with 20 years first class experience and another with 30 Tests under his belt, have been out-bowled by an 18 year old Bangladeshi on his Test debut.
Teenage off-spinner Mehedi Hasan, a former Bangladesh U19 captain, opened the bowling on the first morning in Chittagong.
He soon had the scalps of Ben Duckett and Gary Ballance in the bag, before adding Joe Root after lunch and finishing with six wickets.
And yet on a seriously wearing pitch, England’s three-pronged spin attack – Moeen Ali, Gareth Batty and Adil Rashid – found dismissing batsmen significantly harder.
The telling difference between Mehedi and his English counterparts is not just in the wickets column, it is in their economy rates.
Despite playing his first Test, the 18-year-old exerted tight control over the English batsmen.
He rarely gave them anything easy to hit while continuing to probe away on a dangerous spot, spinning the odd ball considerably and adding subtle variations too.
He conceded only five boundaries (and a six) in 40 overs and gave away just two runs an over.
Whereas Moeen and Rashid have conceded 12 boundaries in 32 overs between them and are leaking runs at around 3.5 an over.
Their lack of consistency is disappointing, preventing them from building up significant pressure on the batsmen, though both have produced wicket-taking deliveries.
What explains this discrepancy in control? It is probably down to the poor ability of modern English batsmen to stay in against spin.
It explains why Moeen has 234 first class wickets and Rashid 450, but at a cost of 41 and 34 respectively, with economy rates of 3.5.
English batsmen whack the bad balls but get out to the good ones.
The bowlers are slightly flattered by their figures.
In Test cricket, the batsmen put away the bad ball and negotiate the good ones, keeping their wickets intact. The England seamers have to try and slow the scoring rate.
The game could go either way, though it will be a major disadvantage batting last.
For England to win, they will have to be more assertive against Mehedi in the second innings and, looking ahead, maybe field less left handers in their top six.
