If we send a second string team over to play tests against Bangladesh, I'd be extremely worried. Remember the shock they gave a very decent Australian side last time they were there? Okay, the Gillespie 200 was daft in the second match, but if it hadn't have been for an awesome rescue job from Gilchrist and Lee/Gillespie in the first match Bangladesh would most likely have won it. Australia were 93/6 after Bangladesh had scored over 400 in the first innings.
1st Test: Bangladesh v Australia at Fatullah, Apr 9-13, 2006 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com
Bangladesh have a lot of performances like that where you would say "oh they almost won that match" but thats about it...There is another match against South Africa where they skittled out SA for 170 odd runs and still went onto lose that match. Over the last 6-7 years, they have come close to winning test/ODI matches against Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia etc yet have still failed to register that all important win. Point I am trying to make is, every time they come up with a performance like that, people think "oh they are improving" but then the next game they suffer another innings defeat. Thats not improvement. Honestly, I dont think Bangladesh cricket have gone forward since their test status.
Yes there is hope, they do have a couple of really good left arm spinners, Razzak, Enamul Haq and Shakib are really talented but its their batting which is absolutely sub standard. It might have something to do with the pitches, might have something to do with the quality of the first class cricket, or the overall psyche of Bangladeshi batsmen, but at the end of the day, the thing is they have not yet produced a genuine batsman who can be hailed as a consistent match winner. Ashraful came a tad close, but seems to have no intelligence, cricketing brain or temperament whatsoever to be a match winner.
Shakib is not so much a special talent, I do believe Bangladesh have produced more talented batsmen than Shakib, namely Ashraful, Nafis Iqbal, Aftab and Alok Kapali but the reason he is special is because unlike those 4, he actually performs on a consistent basis and seems to be a sensible batsman who sets a price to his wicket. Lets see how far he goes..I hope he does well...and that in turn inspires more young batsmen in the country!