aThe only other Test match that Glenn Phillips played before stepping on the field in Sylhet on Tuesday was back in 2020 against Australia in Sydney. Back then, there was no scope for Phillips – originally a wicketkeeper-batter – to shed that moniker. New Zealand picked two spinners in William Somerville and Todd Astle in that game and didn’t need to turn to Phillips’s off-spin. Three years later, in completely different conditions, the opportunity arose. By evening on Tuesday, an extremely glad Phillips fronted the media, and perhaps for the first time, discussed being a Test bowler.
“Obviously, the opportunity to bowl at Test match level has been a dream of mine for a while now. The combination of the line-up and Bangladesh having left-handers presented the opportunity,” he said after the first day’s play. The opportunity came because Bangladesh packed their top-order with left-handers and New Zealand’s two other frontline spinners – Ajaz Patel and Ish Sodhi – turned the ball in towards them. Phillips, thus, became a viable match-up option. It worked perfectly for Phillips, who walked off with four wickets to his name, as he attempted to ‘offer something’ with the ball in his quest to play in the format.
“I have been trying to lose the wicketkeeper-batter tag for a long time now. Hopefully this (four-wicket haul) puts a little stamp on things,” Phillips said. “I worked really hard over it for quite a number of years now with this goal in mind. I also felt that I needed to offer something with the ball in order to play Test cricket.”
“Our batting line-up is incredibly strong. Key to getting this opportunity was to play the allrounder’s role. As far as processes go, I have worked for the last few years trying to find process for my bowling. I have trained my batting for years and years but to be able to come to the biggest stage with the red ball, and to be able to go back to the process, and know I can trust and feel it coming out of the hand. I was a little bit lucky early on. Sometimes you need that luck,” he added.
Phillips’s first wicket of the day – of Najmul Hossain Shanto – came right at end of the first session where the Bangladesh skipper was intent on taking Ajaz apart. His high-risk-high-reward strategy worked for Phillips as the wicket came off an innocuous full-toss that Shanto miscued.
“I have dreamed of getting my first Test wicket for a long time, but that was not how I thought I would get it,” he joked. “You see legspinners often bowl absolute peaches and then a nice juicy full-toss. The batters eyes light up, and it goes straight up. I have always wanted a little piece of that, but I didn’t want it for my first Test wicket. Maybe we can replace with the second wickets.”
“They [Bangladesh] came hard at us early on. They put Ajaz under a lot of pressure. I think it did present the opportunities to take wickets throughout but as we have seen in the sub-continent pitches, you have to be aggressive to put bowlers off their line and length. The Bangladesh boys did that well today but it presented a few wicket taking opportunities.”
Phillips admitted that as a batter he would’ve gone after himself too considering he was playing as New Zealand’s fifth bowling option and not one of the premier spinners in the side. That and the pressure built by the other bowlers, he believes, earned him his excellent bowling figures of 4 for 53.
“Obviously with someone new that the guys haven’t faced before, there’s always that element of unknown. Being the fifth bowler, as a batter, I’d look to target myself as well. I think maybe the combination of those two things presented the opportunity to take a few wickets, which was really nice,” Phillips
“Jazzy [Ajaz Patel] bowled unbelievably well. Our seamers bowled incredibly well. Ish bowled that absolute speccy of a delivery. The pressure was built by everyone all round. I just received the reward.”
Phillips also doffed his hat to skipper Tim Southee for the way he used his spinners. Bangladesh recovered well in the second session but New Zealand hit back towards the end of that phase and then ran through the middle-order in the final session.
“Having lefties in the top-order allowed Ajaz to have a bit of break. But also I think credit to Timmy for understanding what we as spinners need from a confidence perspective. For example, before he took that wicket, Ish didn’t start off the way he would have liked. He felt a bit more relaxed a few overs into it. Starts ripping it really hard, and then obviously the reward comes. The way he holds himself and talks to us as bowlers, is really encouraging. We back his decision-making all the way,” Phillips opined.
Bangladesh lost nine wickets, but got past the 300-run mark, which on a turner could yet be a handy first-innings score. Particularly so, if the surface continues to deteriorate and take a lot more spin as the game progresses. Phillips felt New Zealand had some ‘good periods’ on the day reckoned it was a ’50/50′ at the end. Looking a little beyond the game, he expects New Zealand’s long batting order to match Bangladesh’s score and then set the game up for a tantalising last couple of days.
“I think at the end of any sort of red-ball game, if you are looking at 300 for seven or eight, in our case nine, you are probably looking at a pretty enjoyable day. There were patches when Bangladesh really had us on the ropes. We pulled it back nicely. We had some good periods. We thought that if we built a lot of pressure, we could get the rewards as well. It was maybe a 50/50 day. We put in some really good yards. We had a lot of good plans, and tried to be as patient as possible. The batters are allowed to play good shots as well.
“The pitch is turning quite nicely. It held together really well for day one. Shoriful will be creating footmarks on the other side, presents a new element to the second innings for both teams. I think it will be really interesting to see how to play going forward. We have a long batting order of our own, so potentially if the pitch holds itself for long enough, that the first innings should hopefully be equal. It would set up a quite nice final day or two,” Phillips said.
