Can Bangladesh overcome their T20I PowerPlay issue? Can their batters adjust to windy situations while they bat? Their problems have only gotten worse when the hosts USA humiliated Bangladesh in the first Twenty20 International by winning by five wickets.
Najmul also made a mistake in deciding which end to bowl in the wind along the way, allowing Corey Anderson and Harmeet Singh to bat brilliantly and lead their team to a historic victory.
Despite scoring 34 runs in the first four overs of their match against the USA, Bangladesh managed to score just three runs in the next nine deliveries in the Powerplay, losing Soumya Sarkar (20 from 13 balls), who appeared to be in good form. This showed a lack of urgency to capitalize on the opportunity once Litton Das went for a 15-ball 14.
The openers’ focus has been more on holding onto their wicket than on getting off to a quick start, and the fact that they only managed four runs in the opening over confirms this.
Against USA on Tuesday at the Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston, Bangladeshi batters hardly demonstrated anything during the first six overs that suggests a change in their batting approach. Their average strike rate in the Powerplay during the last five editions of the T20 World Cup, which stands at 98.33, suggests that their top order batters fail to exploit the fielding restrictions of the first six overs.
Najmul Hossain, the captain of Bangladesh, acknowledged that their performance is poor but emphasized that they are not prepared to lose sleep over it. “We hope to improve in the next days,” Najmul told reporters after their humiliating loss to the United States. “We are doing badly in this area.”
“I don’t think there is anything to worry because all the batters are working with their skill and we all know that the top order needs to play well and as a batting unit it is everybody’s responsibility and the batsmen are working with it,” he stated.
“They rested opener Tanzid Hasan because they wanted to give Soumya Sarkar more time in the middle, considering he was out of cricket for a while with a knee injury and only returned for the final two games in the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe,” he said. “Obviously there is always (room for) improvement and the batters are looking at it (strike rate in the PowerPlay), so I hope they will comeback in this World Cup,” he continued.
Tanzid Tamim wasn’t dropped by us. I feel like we were going to play all three openers in a rotation, so we gave him a break because Soumya wasn’t playing as many games due to injury, which is why we decided to rest Tanzid,” the player remarked.
Any team that plays in this region of the world may find it difficult to play because of the strong winds that travel here quickly, especially if they don’t know enough about the wind’s direction. This was the situation for Bangladesh against the United States, as the home team rallied to chase down 55 runs in the final four overs with three balls remaining.
“I don’t think so (miscalculation),” he responded when asked if he thought he misjudged the wind’s direction. “It(wind) is very important I think when we came here for practice we all know the wind will be having a big impact in the match and we all saw that but we tried to execute that plan.”
If the tourists want to enter the World Cup with confidence, they will need to address their problems as quickly as possible and mount a recovery in the three-match series.
