When opener Tanzid Hasan Tamim was picked for the Test series against Pakistan earlier this year, "Bazball cricket" was the perception floating in the cricket fraternity of Bangladesh.

It was not surprising. Tanzid, who had cemented his place in white-ball cricket with an aggressor's tag, never looked an obvious option for the longer format — despite scoring five centuries and six half-centuries in his 26-match first-class career at an average of 39.60. His aggressive domestic strike-rate of 77.59 hardly matched the criterion usually set for a Test opener.

From scrutiny to redemption

Tanzid could not capitalize on his chances when he replaced the injured Shadman Islam on his Test debut against Pakistan, making 26 and 4 in two innings. His temperament and technique came under scrutiny, and his omission against Zimbabwe suggested he was not part of the bigger plan.

It looked as though Bangladesh would turn to Shadman and Mahmudul Hasan Joy as their openers against Australia. But newly appointed chief selector Habibul Bashar had other ideas. The out-of-form Mahmudul did not make the tour, and Tanzid was drafted in as Shadman's opening partner.

Bashar's thinking was that modern-day Test cricket was moving quickly, prompting the need for an opener who could counterattack the bowlers — and in the process provide the dressing room a breath of fresh air given how he makes things look simple.

A historic hundred

Tanzid repaid that faith by scoring his maiden Test hundred in only his second match, his 101 making him the first Bangladeshi to register a Test century on Australian soil.

He cruised to his first Test fifty off 102 balls with five boundaries, and got a reprieve when Steve Smith dropped him off Nathan Lyon on 61. He showed composure when wicketkeeper Alex Carey came up to the stumps to stop him stepping out of his crease, instead opting for late cuts and square drives to find boundaries square of the wicket.

"It's a great opportunity to play here. I think this is very special for me, because this is the first time I am here and played Test cricket. Only the second [Test] of mine, and made a hundred. It's very special for me," Tanzid said after his landmark innings, adding that he was "very, very proud."

"What the team required, I was trying to play like that. I think the wicket looks good. They came to me very differently, and I was trying to play normal cricket and keep calm."

"A dominating hundred"

While many were surprised by Tanzid's different batting template, it was hardly the case for former Bangladesh skipper Khaled Mahmud, who spotted him at his Bangla Trac Cricket Academy in Rajshahi as a teenager ahead of the Under-19 World Cup in 2020.

"His defence is strong. Mentally also he is a strong boy. Because of the T20 and one-day mentality he is always looking to score runs and play shots and carries a bit of a different mindset," Mahmud told Cricbuzz. "But technically he's good and he can play all the shots from the cover drive to the square drive as well as pull and hook shots."

"It was a dominating hundred. The way he batted and hit shots all across the park, he didn't play a bad shot. We saw a totally different Tamim from T20s and one-dayers... He played such a beautiful innings."

Having given a fitting reply to his critics with a historic ton, Tanzid will be a relieved man — and the man Bashar's faith was placed in has delivered.