Towhid Hridoy produced one of the great rescue innings in Bangladesh cricket history on Saturday, striking an unbeaten 242 to set a new national record for the highest individual score in Test cricket and haul his side from the brink of collapse into a first-innings lead against West Indies in Sylhet.
The 25-year-old, playing only his third Test, resumed on 29 overnight and batted through the entire third day of the second Test, finishing with 242 not out from 359 balls, an innings studded with 22 fours and 11 sixes. Bangladesh had been in deep trouble at 184 for seven, still well short of West Indies' first-innings total of 356, before Hridoy orchestrated a recovery that added 202 runs with the last three wickets and carried the hosts to 386, a lead of 30.
The knock passed Mushfiqur Rahim's unbeaten 219 against Zimbabwe at Mirpur in 2018, which had stood as Bangladesh's highest Test score for eight years. Hridoy became only the fourth batter from the country to score a Test double century, joining Mushfiqur, Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, and the first Bangladesh batter ever to turn a maiden Test century into a double hundred.
The scale of the rescue is best measured by what surrounded it. Mushfiqur's 34 was the next-highest score in the innings, and no other Bangladesh batter passed 34. Hridoy's 242 accounted for 62.69 per cent of his side's total of 386, the largest share any Bangladesh batter has contributed to a completed Test innings. The previous mark was Litton Das's 58.13 per cent, set when he scored 25 in Bangladesh's infamous 43 all out against the same opponents in 2018.
Hridoy's day was a record-breaker almost from the moment he passed fifty. The 213 runs he scored on the third day alone are the most by a Bangladesh batter in a single day of Test cricket, passing Shakib's 212 on the second day of the Wellington Test against New Zealand in 2017. When he moved to 172, he passed Mahmudul Hasan Joy's 171 against Ireland to become the highest scorer in a Test at the Sylhet venue, and he also set the highest individual score by a Bangladesh batter against West Indies.
The 11 sixes he struck are the most by a Bangladesh batter in a Test innings, comfortably passing Tamim's previous mark of seven, and left him just one short of the world record of 12 shared by Wasim Akram and Yashasvi Jaiswal. His was also the first double century by a Bangladesh batter in the World Test Championship, and his unbeaten 242 is the second-highest score in a Test innings in which no other batter reached fifty, behind only Dennis Amiss's 262 not out against West Indies at Kingston in 1974.
Bangladesh's recovery began in the company of Mushfiqur, with whom Hridoy added 73 for the fourth wicket after the hosts had slipped to 51 for three. But it was after lunch, with the side seven down, that the innings changed character entirely. Hridoy farmed the strike with the tail, found the boundary with growing freedom, and turned a threatened first-innings deficit into a lead that few in the ground could have imagined when the seventh wicket fell.
West Indies' bowlers toiled without reward as the day wore on. Jomel Warrican finished with four for 104 from his left-arm spin, and Jayden Seales took two for 58, but the attack could not find a way through Hridoy's defence or contain his strokeplay once he reached three figures. The innings finally closed at 386, with Hridoy unbeaten, and West Indies reached seven without loss in their second innings by stumps, still trailing by 23 runs.
The innings arrives at a significant moment for Bangladesh, a side still searching for a settled middle order and for batters capable of long, match-shaping contributions away from the familiar names. Hridoy, better known until now as a white-ball batter, had played only two Tests before this match, and his selection had been debated in some quarters. A record-breaking double hundred in his third Test, made under the pressure of a first-innings collapse, answers that debate in the most emphatic terms available.
For West Indies, the day was a reminder of how quickly a commanding position can slip away. Having posted 356 in their first innings and reduced Bangladesh to 184 for seven, they were on course for a substantial lead and a strong position in the match. Instead they will resume on the fourth day chasing the game, needing early wickets to keep the target within reach on a pitch that has begun to offer the bowlers encouragement.
Attention now turns to the remainder of the match, which runs until Monday, 9 November. If Bangladesh's bowlers can press home the advantage Hridoy created, the hosts have a genuine chance of a series-levelling result; if West Indies' batters respond, the game remains finely balanced. Whatever the outcome, Hridoy's 242 not out has already secured its place in Bangladesh's record books, and the young batter will walk out for the rest of the match knowing he has produced an innings his country will remember for years.
