A loss that revealed cracks in the system

Bangladesh have been on a run of good form over the past few months. 

It all started in the Zimbabwe tour where the Tigers won the Test, ODI and T20I series without much fuss.

But in that series was the sudden retirement of Mahmudullah from the Test team. 

ODI captain Tamim Iqbal also left after the ODI series to recover from a knee injury, which he carried while playing the Test and ODIs against Zimbabwe.

There were rumblings from the management that felt that the left-handed opener was feigning the injury.

As a result, there were rumours that Tamim wanted to leave the ODI captaincy.

And now, head coach Russell Domingo has revealed that Mushfiqur Rahim does not want to wicket-keep in T20Is.   

It was always known that Mushfiqs preference was to be the wicketkeeper of the side and the head coach even revealed that Nurul Hasan Sohan would be the keeper for the first two games.

After that, the keeping duties would be shared between Mushfiq and Sohan in the next three games, but something has changed. 

All is not well inside the Bangladesh camp.

Batting is a huge worry 

While pitches in Mirpur curated by Sri Lankan pitch curator Gamini de Silva have favoured the bowlers much more than the batters, the batting has also not been great. 

Take the last match as a prime example. 

Chasing a moderate total of 128-5 set by New Zealand, Bangladesh managed just 76.

It was not a 76 pitch as the New Zealand batters showed. 

Photo: Salahuddin Ahmed/TBS

Bangladesh also got off to a good start, with Liton Das and Mohammad Naim both passing double figures. 

But Liton tried to play one shot too many and was out LBW to a delivery that was bowled slower than usual. 

Naim was played on, playing to a ball turning in, away from the body.

He scored 13 from 19 in an innings that had two boundaries and Liton scored 15 from 11 in an innings that had three boundaries. 

What that shows is that there was a high percentage of dot balls from both players and they failed to do the basic task of rotating the strike for singles and doubles, and instead went for big shots.

Bringing up Mahedi Hasan to no.3 in the batting order also made no sense as he is used as a pinch-hitter and quick runs were hardly needed when he came in. 

The situation required for players to play basic cricket and Mahedi departed for one after playing four balls. 

The hunger to fight and grind out a win was missing

While Nurul Hasan and Afif Hossain have had innings in the last few series, where they impressed and helped the team win.

However, they too failed on this occasion, and they both got out in a lethargic fashion. 

These players have, in previous matches shown, that they can steady the ship under pressure and play according to the situation. 

Bangladesh were making strides in the ICC T20I rankings and moved up to number six there.

But the loss here pegs them back to number seven.

There are two matches left in the series and Bangladesh can still win it but perhaps the fact they have two more chances played on the minds of the players.

This was a great opportunity nonetheless to rise up the rankings and build more momentum with wins, heading into the T20 World Cup. 

New Zealand have not brought their World Cup squad as they don't want those players to be in a bio-bubble for a lengthy time. 

The pitch and home conditions were also supposed to favour the Bangladesh players more, so losing a match with all the circumstances considered, does not bode well for the home team 

Bangladesh have to quickly try and bounce back in the fourth T20I against New Zealand on Tuesday.

The loss though exposes the cracks that have been there in the team for a while now.

The reality is that Bangladesh have only recently found a way to win games against the traditionally better teams in T20Is and they are still not a strong T20I team. 

The recent wins help the team's confidence and in the rankings, but that does not mean Bangladesh head into the World Cup as one of the favourites. 

There has been a lot of talk about Bangladesh not preparing for the upcoming World Cup properly, but the fact is that there is nothing better than winning. 

Bangladesh could have played in more batter friendly surfaces and ended up losing more games and that wouldn't have made matters better leading into the World Cup.