How did Tigers’ World Cup audition go?
Bangladesh hosted two of the slowest T20I series ever in the space of a month and a half which raises a very important question.
With series wins against Zimbabwe, Australia and New Zealand, Bangladesh have won three T20I series on the trot and it's the first time they've done that. In fact, Bangladesh have won nine out of their last 13 T20Is which include historic series wins against Australia and New Zealand. The fifth T20I between Bangladesh and New Zealand was the last international outing for them before the World Cup in Oman and the UAE.
5.72 and 5.85 were the combined run-rates of the New Zealand and Australia series respectively. So Bangladesh hosted two of the slowest T20I series ever in the space of a month and a half which raises a very important question. How was Bangladesh's preparation ahead of the World Cup?
Top four failing miserably
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Tamim Iqbal, Bangladesh's most prolific player with the bat across formats, has been away from T20Is for 18 months. In the absence of Liton Das, Mohammad Naim and Soumya Sarkar opened the innings against Zimbabwe and Australia. The duo did well in Zimbabwe but failed against Australia. Naim got some runs but his strike rate was way too low. Soumya had a nightmare of a series against Australia and as Liton Das returned in the New Zealand series, Soumya saw himself benched. Liton got a couple of good starts but didn't do anything substantial. With no Tamim in the World Cup, two of these three have to open the innings and none of them have big scores under their belt.
Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim too had a very quiet series with the bat. Bangladesh have experimented a lot with the number three position in this series but none of them worked in their favour. In fact, their top four averaged only 22.5 in the last two years in T20Is. Only the top four batters of Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka among full members averaged less than them during this period. In order to do well in the World Cup, it is essential for the top four to be more sensible and take more responsibility.
One-dimensional spin attack
Spinners have found a great deal of success for Bangladesh in the recent past but that has a lot to do with the pitches. The pitches offered a lot of assistance to the spinners but that might not be the case in the World Cup. The conditions in the UAE are, more or less, similar to those here in Bangladesh but the pitches won't be this sluggish particularly at the beginning. Bangladesh have three finger spinners- Shakib Al Hasan, Mahedi Hasan and Nasum Ahmed- in the squad. Nasum did well in the last two series but his records on slightly less helpful pitches aren't inspiring. Mahedi has done well so far especially with the new ball but the off-spinner hasn't been challenged by unresponsive pitches in the recent past. Bangladesh had a leg spinner in the squad for the New Zealand series in Aminul Islam Biplob but he wasn't given a game. He has been left out of the 15-man squad as well. Lack of variation in the spin attack might hurt Bangladesh in the tournament.
UAE pitches might help Bangladesh
The second phase of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to begin mid-September and end just before the commencement of the World Cup. The tournament will be hosted on three grounds which means the same pitches will be used over and over again. During the 2020 IPL, the pitches, during the second half of the tournament, became extremely tired and the average first-innings total came down to around 140.
This might be the case during the second half of the World Cup as well. Teams have picked a lot of spinners in their squads for the World Cup keeping this in mind. UAE is one of the most favourable places for the spinners to bowl and those tired pitches later in the tournament might help the Tigers. Also, the qualifier matches in Oman, where the decks are likely to be flat, might help the batters find a bit of momentum going into the main stage. Bangladesh will have the opportunity to work out the perfect team combination in those three games as well.
Bangladesh have regained the much-needed confidence
Bangladesh hasn't been a very good side in the shortest form of the game. They have, so far, won only a single game in the main stage of the T20 World Cup and that too way back in 2007. They were absolutely outplayed in a T20I series in New Zealand earlier this year.
Bangladesh regained the lost confidence by winning three consecutive series but their negative approach has been criticised as well. But Shakib, after the first T20I against New Zealand, pointed out that Bangladesh won 18 out of 24 matches going into the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup and progressed to the super eights. Bangladesh's batting line-up isn't the most dynamic one and the batters aren't equipped enough to smash a lot of boundaries. Therefore, preparing batting-friendly pitches could have backfired and Bangladesh might not have won this many matches. These wins will stand Bangladesh in good stead ahead of the mega event starting on October 17.
