MIRPUR, Bangladesh (Web Desk) - Najmul Hossain Shanto walking out of the crease repeatedly against Pakistan's pacers, on the first day of the Mirpur Test, was a message.
On the face of it, Shanto was trying to meet the deliveries. The pitch at the Shere Bangla National Stadium had a green layering on top and some "dryness underneath" - according to Pakistan seamer Mohammad Abbas - and his confident driving forced the visitors' attack to dither. They moved away from their lines and lengths often, and Shanto's counter-attacking century gave Bangladesh a footing in the Test after one day's play itself.
Shanto's movement out of the crease had a few ripple effects. He forced wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan to come up to the stumps to Abbas. Later confirmed by Mominul Haque at the press conference, it messed with Abbas' lengths, which was exactly Shanto's plan.
Shanto's shot-making also forced Pakistan to become defensive. His 101 - along with Mominul's 91 - delivered a recovery in the Bangladesh innings with a 170-run third-wicket stand.
Across a dominating innings where Shanto struck his ninth Test century, his only blip was the loss of concentration after he reached the three-figure mark, immediately falling lbw to Abbas. His approach was also a message to the other Bangladesh batters.
Shanto now has four hundreds in his last five Tests, a vast improvement in recent months despite a major leadership setback along the way. Just hours before the team's flight to Sri Lanka last June, he was sacked as captain. He soon quit the Test captaincy, but returned to the role in November. In all that time, his Test form has stayed up, and it is rubbing off on others in the team even if they haven't made the most of it.
Mominul would go on to say Shanto's 101 in 130 balls, with 12 fours and two sixes, was the captain's best innings he'd seen. He said that the pitch had everything for the bowlers, including movement and inconsistent bounce, but Shanto overcame the conditions well.
"If you consider the whole day, there was some challenge against the new ball. The ball was moving both ways; there was also swing," Mominul said. "Both our openers got out to good balls. When Shanto started counterattacking, their bowlers were under pressure. I think Shanto's knock was especially worth mentioning.
"I used to enjoy watching Tamim bhai bat at the start of my career. I think this was the best innings from Shanto, but that is just my opinion. I don't know if he considers it as his best innings or not. He is in great form, having scored centuries against Sri Lanka, Ireland and New Zealand most recently. I think it's great to see him perform under pressure."
He said that Shanto's rate of converting starts to fifties and hundreds is a sign of batting improvement in Bangladesh cricket across the board. "He is hungry for runs and wants to make contributions for the team," Mominul said. "He is setting a higher standard than what he had done in the past. Someone else will have to do better than him."
Despite the captaincy saga, the players' boycott in December, and his stance when the BCB blocked the team from the T20 World Cup, Shanto has enjoyed a phenomenal twelve months as a Test batter, averaging 72.85. Even though it's across five Tests only, the batting average is at par with Joe Root and Shubman Gill. Root and Gill, though, have played way more Tests in that period.
The comeback looks even better because he hadn't hit a Test century across five series from March 2024 to April 2025. It included Bangladesh's series win in Pakistan, but his runs were needed against India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, which Bangladesh missed.
Over the last five years, however, Shanto has been the standout Test batter for Bangladesh. He bridges the top-order and middle-order, often stepping up to play as the enforcer or the accumulator. Mominul said that Shanto must remain on an even keel to continue in this rich vein of form.
"To play with this rhythm, it is important that he bottles up this exact mentality," Mominul said. "He can't be too confident, nor can he feel too low. He has to stick to the particular batting pattern to keep scoring regularly. I hope he keeps making these contributions."
A top-four batter starting a Test series with a century against a higher-ranked team is rare in Bangladesh cricket. Shahriar Nafees (Aus, 2006), Tamim Iqbal (Eng, 2016) and Mominul (SL, 2018) spring to mind. There's plenty of cricket still to go, but the latest one from Shanto has put Bangladesh ahead at 301 for 4, and that's as good a start to the series the hosts would've liked.