What's next for Bangladesh and Ireland in Test cricket?

What's next for Bangladesh and Ireland in Test cricket? That was the lingering question following the conclusion of the two-match Test series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Sunday. Both the captains - Najmul Hossain and Andrew Balbirnie - expressed similar concerns although their paths aren't exactly the same.

As far as Bangladesh are concerned, they are slated to take on Pakistan in a two-match Test series next March but skipper Najmul insisted that keeping the players motivated during the time span will be his biggest challenge as they don't have too many first-class matches until then.

Currently, the Test cricketers will be involved in the National Cricket League, Bangladesh's lone first-class cricket league, in the upcoming days and some of them are also expected to feature in the BPL. The Bangladesh Cricket League is expected to be held after the BPL though nothing is finalized yet.

"It's very difficult but as professional cricketers, there's nothing much to do. What we always try, or what I want to do as captain, is to keep communication among everyone. The individual practice sessions we have, we must do those purposefully," Najmul told reporters following their 217-run win over Ireland.

"If we get a chance to play any four-day match before the Pakistan series that would be very good but I don't know whether that opportunity will come," he said. "If BPL happens, then that also matters. But I think the individual practice sessions we will have must be done purposefully. We will have some challenges, and each player should maintain communication with another player - understanding where improvement is needed. If we keep discussing these, I think the challenge will feel comparatively less," he said

Najmul added that scoring big in domestic first-class cricket is the only way forward for them to make it big in Test cricket considering their batting unit delivered in the two-match series but there were hardly any mammoth hundred scored even though they had eight half centuries and four centuries.

"I think before the series, when we planned and had team meetings, we discussed how many hundreds we could score as a team. Individually we will score, but as a team how many hundreds we are scoring in each series or innings - and the hundreds should not stop at just 100. As you said, they should become 150, 160, 170, 200. So the positive side is that we got four hundreds. The negative side is that these hundreds could have been bigger; if two double hundreds came out of these, it would be even better. If the fifties became hundreds, it would be better. We had opportunities; we couldn't do it. Everyone tried. But as captain, it would feel better if it happened," said Najmul.

"So both positives and negatives exist. But since we talked about hundreds in the meeting, there is satisfaction there. But I hope in the future these runs become 150s, 200s. The way to come out of this - in domestic first-class cricket, we must score big runs and whenever there is an opportunity to play matches, everyone should play those four-day matches. As captain, I want every player to play first-class matches and try to score big," he added.

For Ireland, the challenge appears to be even bigger as their next Test assignment is only in August 2026 against Afghanistan while there are not too many first-class matches for them to keep improving in the longer-format. "I think all of us are still, we're kind of learning on the job every Test match," said Balbirnie.

"That can be difficult, you know, for example would be Murad (Hasan) who's made his debut in Sylhet, but he had a number of first-class games under his belt in this country. So he knows exactly where his game is at," he said adding that they would probably need 50 years to have someone playing 100 Test matches.

"You just have to look at someone like Mushfiqur who played his 100th Test match this week. I think his first Test was in 2005. So that's 20 years. I think for one of our players to make 100 caps, they'd have to probably play for 50 years and so I don't know when we'll see our first centurion in that department," he said.