Home ›› 03 Aug 2021 ›› Sport
Young cricketers of the Bangladesh team will be facing their toughest challenge to date as they will be facing bowlers like Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood and Adam Zampa during their five-match twenty20 international series against Australia, starting from today.
Due to the absence of Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das, the batting strength of the Tigers will depend on the performances of youngsters like Mohammad Naim Sheikh, Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, and Shamim Hossain- who are yet to test themselves against a strong bowling attack like Australia.
Opener Naim has played 12 T20Is so far, and his best innings came against Indian at Nagpur in 2019, where he scored 81 of 48 balls, but the Indian team were missing bowlers like Jaspreet Bumrah or Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.
Naim’s statistics are also not good against stronger bowling attacks like Pakistan and New Zealand. He has played five matches against these two teams where neither his total nor his strike rate was impressive.
Though the left-handed opener got his second T20I half-century in the first match of the series against Zimbabwe, he was out cheaply in the next two games while playing Blessing Muzarabani and Starc or Hazlewood are capable of creating much more trouble than the Zimbabwean.
Afif Hossain is also suffering from the same problem as out of his 18 T20Is, seven are against ZImbabwe, and his only half-century came against the same opposition. But when it comes to punching above the ranks, the all-rounder cuts sorry figures.
Against Sri Lanka, he was out for a duck, and later against India, his scores are six and zero. After that, he scored nine and 21 runs in the two matches against Pakistan whilst in New Zealand he played an innings of 45 runs in the first match but could only score two and eight runs in the next two.
The Blackcaps were also without some of their main bowlers but yet, Naim or Afif could capitalise on the situation. And no doubt that Starc, Hazlewood conjoined by Mitchel Marsh will put them through a tough test.
Nurul Hasan, who made his return in Zimbabwe after four years of wait, also has a poor record. He has scored only 104 runs from the 12 T20Is he played, and his personal best 30* also came against Zimbabwe in 2016. Against New Zealand, he could not move past ten runs in the three matches he played. And against Zampa or Starc, Sohan must bring his A-game to tackle the quality Aussie bowling.
Rookie Shamim Hossain rose to fame rapidly, but the Under-19 World Cup winner is yet to sit for the most difficult test of his career.
The left-hander belted local and Ireland Wolves bowlers before showcasing some big-hitting abilities after earning the T20I cap in Zimbabwe. But his bat-speed will definitely be challenged by the fierce pace of Starc or the nifty Hazlewood.
Earlier, Tigers head coach Russell Domingo told the media that the players would face the ball, not the man. And in the pre-match press conference on Monday, T20I skipper Mahmudullah also placed his bets on the young guns.
“I think Sohan (Nurul Hasan), Afif (Hossain), Shamim (Hossain) have shown their ability to finish the game, and they all are in a good rhythm. I am putting my full faith upon them and hope that they will do the justice to their merit and skillset,” Mahmudullah told the media.
Mahmudullah also conveyed his message to the youngsters where he said that it was high time was to showcase their true colours and come out of the shadows of the seniors.
“We are missing some of our regular players. It is a big opportunity for all of us to show our standards. We need to rely on everyone who is in the squad,” Mahmudullah said.
The T20I skipper is very well aware of the bowling strength of the opposition and is ready to go all-out against the mighty Aussies, “They have world-class bowlers like Starc, Zampa, so the series is going to be challenging. Our T20I team is very balanced right now. If you take a look at our side, there are 5-6 good batsmen in the squad, along with a sharpened bowling attack with bowlers like Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan,” the 35-year-old said.
Mahmudullah is convinced about his side’s bowling attack, but it’s the batting that might worry him because it consists of inexperienced youngsters yet to prove themselves against strong oppositions. And this time around, they will have to face the toughest test of their career, and it might be where the fate of the series lies.
