On 10 November 2000, Bangladesh became the tenth country to play Test cricket when it played a one-off Test match against India at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka. The Asian country had previously played cricket as East Pakistan and after independence in 1971, they began their international campaign in 1979 and this soon paved the way for their entry into the longest format of the game.
Bangladesh’s first ODI was against Pakistan in 1986, in which the debutants lost by seven wickets. He had to wait a decade and 22 ODIs to celebrate his first win in international cricket.
However, his entry into Test cricket came after the International Cricket Council (ICC) annual convention in June 2000, in which all nine Test nations voted in favor of Bangladesh’s Test debut.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, the then president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, was instrumental in securing all the necessary votes to secure a Test berth. Following due procedures, the hosts were prepared for the inaugural game and invitations were sent to India and England. Team India agreed to be the challenger.
On 10 November 2000, Naimur Rahman captained the Bangladeshi team, which won the toss and elected to bat first. The debutants showed a lot of promise in the first innings as Habibul Bashar scored the first half-century and Bangladesh finished the first day on 239/6.
The next day, Aminul Islam achieved the distinction of scoring the first Test century for Bangladesh, before the team folded its maiden essay on 400. Sunil Joshi took five wickets (5/142), Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar took two wickets each.
The hosts struggled to 236/6 before a crucial partnership between Sunil Joshi and captain Sourav Ganguly came to the fore. Joshi scored 92 runs while Ganguly contributed 84 to give his team a slim lead of 29 runs (429). Captain Rahman scored 6/132 while Mohammad Rafiq took three wickets.
The hosts failed to build their momentum in the second innings and were bowled out for 91 by the Indian bowlers. The visitors chased down a narrow target of 64 runs with nine wickets remaining on the fourth day of the historic Test. However, it was consistency that was more important than the outcome.
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