Shanto credits whole Bangladesh team for ‘biggest victory’

Najmul Hossain Shanto believes Bangladesh’s historic nine-wicket victory over Australia in Darwin was the biggest win in the country’s cricket history, but the captain was unwilling to single out one individual for the achievement.

Instead, Shanto named the entire Bangladesh team as his Player of the Match, highlighting the contributions of players throughout the four-day Test.

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“To be very honest, my Player of the Match is the Bangladesh team,” Shanto said at the post-match press conference. 

“If you look at everyone you mentioned (Tanzid Hasan, Hasan Mahmud, Mehidy Hasan Miraz) they all contributed in some way.”

Bangladesh dominated Australia from the opening day, bowling the hosts out for 198 before posting 426 to take a 228-run first-innings lead. They then dismissed Australia for 284 in the second innings before completing the chase of 57 in 14.2 overs.

Shanto said the victory had been built on a collective effort rather than one outstanding individual performance.

“Tamim’s first hundred was obviously a special moment for him, especially as he was playing only his second Test,” he said. “Miraz has performed many times before, and the way he batted and bowled in these conditions was outstanding.”

The captain also pointed to Shadman Islam’s contribution, despite the opener scoring only 20 in the first innings.

“Even Shadman’s 20 runs in the first innings were very important,” Shanto said.

But he reserved particular praise for Bangladesh’s lower order, whose runs helped the visitors push their first-innings total beyond 400.

“If I have to put everything else aside and mention one thing, I would say the way our lower-order batters batted,” he said. “Hasan, Taijul, Taskin and even Ebadot, their contributions were very important for the team, and that is something we don’t manage to do very often.”

Shanto also stressed that everyone had contributed in their respective roles.

“So I think they deserve a lot of credit. At the same time, everyone contributed from their respective positions,” he said.

The result was made even more significant by the quality of the opposition and the conditions in which Bangladesh achieved it. Australia’s world-class bowling attack was unable to prevent the visitors from scoring 426, while their batting line-up was twice bowled out.

For Shanto, the scale of the achievement was clear.

“If you consider Bangladesh cricket across all three formats, we have had many big victories,” he said. “But I would say that, so far, this is one of Bangladesh’s biggest victories, and there was a lot of hard work behind it. So I think this is the biggest victory in Bangladesh’s history.”

Bangladesh had planned to play five days of cricket and focus on each session rather than the eventual result. Instead, they completed the job in four days after controlling the Test from the outset.

“The way we dominated from Day 1 is certainly something to be proud of,” Shanto said. “Everyone worked hard and everyone fulfilled their respective roles, and this is the result of that.”

With the victory secured, Shanto said the team deserved to enjoy the moment, knowing how rarely such occasions come around in Bangladesh cricket.

“After a victory like this, we should definitely celebrate,” he said. “These kinds of moments come very rarely in our cricketing lives. So I think we should celebrate the whole day and celebrate it properly.”