Triple Crown for Bangladeshi All-rounder – Amar Shonar Bangla

Rabindranath Tagore wrote Amar Shonar Bangla (My Bengal of Gold) in 1905, but it was on 13 October 2013 when Sohag Gazi recited this great song – national anthem since 1972 – in the most thumping style at Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazi – who turned 22 in August – wrote a new history with his unique all-round performance in Chittagong Test against New Zealand. He is the first ever all-rounder in 136 years’ history of Test cricket to score a hundred and take a hat-trick in the same Test match. This feat was never ever achieved in Test matches – even great all-rounders like Sir Gary Sobers, Sir Ian Botham, Sir Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Imran Khan could not achieve this feat. Sohag Gazi certainly sung a very unique song. 

In fact, playing his career’s only seventh Test match, Sohab Gazi won a Triple Crown – a century, six wickets in an innings and a hat-trick. This is a matchless feat, and was never achieved before by any all-rounder from any country in any of 2097 Test matches played so far. 

For first four days in the Chittagong Test match, left-hand batsman Mominul Haque was Bangladesh’s hero – for his colossal 181 in the first innings. Sohag Gazi also had completed his unbeaten hundred on the fourth day but it was the final day when he inserted his name on some blank pages of Test cricket record books after claiming his hat-trick. These pages bear only Sohag Gazi’s name and nobody else’s.    

Sohag Gazi’s was 40^th hat-trick in history of Test cricket and only second by a Bangladeshi bowler. Alok Kapali was the first bowler from Bangladesh to take a Test hat-trick against Pakistan at Peshawar in August 2003. English bowlers lead the list with 12 hat-tricks, closely followed by Australians with 11. West Indian and Pakistani bowlers have achieved four hat-tricks each. New Zealand, India and Bangladesh are next in line with two each. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka complete the list of 40 with one hat-trick apiece.  

Australia’s Jimmy Hughes is the only bowler in Test cricket history to take two hat-tricks in the same Test match – against South Africa at Old Trafford, Manchester in 1912. Two more bowlers have taken two hat-tricks in different Test matches – Hugh Trumble of Australia and Wasim Akram of Pakistan. Rest in the list of hat-trick bowlers have taken hat-trick only once in their careers. 

After scoring his unbeaten hundred, Sohag Gazi took 6 for 77 with his off-spin bowling. It was 29^th occasion in the history of Test cricket when an all-rounder scored a century and took five or more wickets in an innings of the same Test match. Shakib Al Hasan was the first and only Bangladeshi all-rounder who had achieved this feat two seasons ago against Pakistan. Sohaib Gazi now has joined him to take Bangladesh’s tally to two. English bowlers have achieved this feat on six occasions, followed by four each from Australia, South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan. Three Indian and two Bangladeshi all-rounders are next in line while one apiece from New Zealand and Zimbabwe complete the list. No Sri Lankan player has achieved this all-round feat as yet.

England’s Sir Ian Botham scored a century and took five or more wickets in an innings of the same Test match on five occasions – a feat more than total tally of any other Test playing country. He is the only all-rounder to score a century and took 13 wickets in the same Test match – against India at Mumbai in February 1980. Denis Atkinson of West Indies and Mushtaq Mohammad of Pakistan are the only two players who had scored a double century and took five wickets in an innings of the same Test match. 

Chittagong Test match ended in a draw but it conferred two stars for Bangladesh – Mominul Haque from Cox’s Bazar and Sohag Gazi from Barisal. Both are prodigies of Bangladesh Cricket Academy and junior national teams. Both were born in 1991 within a space of 55 days and are in the first year of their Test careers. Mominul Haque is more solid looking batsman and is likely to have more successful career but Sohag Gazi has achieved a feat that was never done before in the history of Test cricket.