Tigers' opening circus

Bangladesh have brought in left-handed opening batsman Parvez Hossain Emon, alongside seamer Kamrul Islam Rabbi, for the last match of their three-match Twenty20 international series.

This indicates that Saif Hassan, who has failed horribly in his first two T20Is with scores of one and zero, will be dropped in the final match today.

Parvez has always been regarded as one of the biggest prospects for T20Is, and since he hit a 42-ball century in a Bangabandhu T20 Cup match in 2020, the country’s fastest in T20s, his call up to the national team seemed imminent.

He was called up for the primary squad for the one-day international series against West Indies at the beginning of the year but missed out due to an injury.

After the World Cup and ahead of the series, Parvez was one of the players who had been training with Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud. He practised range-hitting, and his inclusion in the series looked a certainty.

But surprisingly, he was not called up. Rather, Saif, who has always been touted as a Test opener since his early days, was called up.

This reinforced that Bangladesh were looking for a left hand-right hand combination up top, something head coach Russell Domingo admitted during the World Cup.

But Saif’s failure, exposing his non-existent footwork, has forced Bangladesh to bring in a change and call up Parvez for the final T20I.

And if Parvez pairs up with Mohammad Naim in the final match of the series today, this will be Bangladesh’s seventh opening partnership of the year.

The year started with Liton Das, who has been axed after a poor World Cup showing, and Naim pairing up at the top against New Zealand. Against Zimbabwe, Naim was partnered by another player dropped after the World Cup, Soumya Sarkar.

Soumya and Liton paired up in a match, and even Shak Mahedi Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan were played up top for runs.

But nothing worked as Bangladesh have only one three-figure partnership and one half-century partnership at the top in 26 matches. The Tigers only average 19.65 runs from their opening partnership this year, which is never ideal for a side that also lacks firepower at the end.

But what is more concerning is bringing sudden changes to the squad in the middle of the series. Parvez is the last in line, but this has been going on in all three formats.

Earlier this year, during the ODI series vs Sri Lanka at home, Bangladesh brought Naim out of nowhere to replace Liton, who had failed to score in that series.

In the Test series vs West Indies, Soumya was drafted into the squad after the first Test to partner Tamim Iqbal, despite Saif being in the squad.

Parvez is not the only one to come into the side out of a sudden. After Mustafizur Rahman suffered from a side strain in the second T20I, it was expected that Shohidul Islam, who had been with the team, would play if Mustafiz could not get ready for the final match.

But, along with Parvez, pacer Kamrul Islam Rabbi was called up. The pacer had also been part of the training under Mahmud before the series but missed out on the squad initially.

The selection for this series was questioned immediately as Saif and Akbar Ali had been playing in the National Cricket League, the four-day first-class tournament, before being brought in for T20Is.

It looks like the team management finally realised their mistake. Parvez’s selection seemed like the most obvious thing to do in what seemed like revamping the side, and they are doing that, but only after another projection of failure.