T20 batting woes continue

Dismal batting performances from leading Twenty20 cricketers continued in the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League as the opening match between Fortune Barishal and Chattagram Challengers ended up as a low-scoring affair, not the kind of cricket expected in this format.

The surface of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium received constant criticism from the players of Australia and New Zealand touring Bangladesh in 2021.

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said after the New Zealand series that playing a few matches straight on this wicket can damage a batsman’s career for good.

The adverse impact of playing on slow and low tracks was very much visible in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, where the batsmen struggled to meet the requirements of T20 batting.

Bangladesh played three T20Is against Pakistan right after the T20 World Cup. They suffered a 3-0 defeat as they were given a dose of their own medicine because Pakistan had better quality batsmen and spinners who could make the most of SBNCS conditions.

But after almost two months, when most of the players from Bangladesh’s T20 pool appeared to play for their respective BPL outfits, they showed the same old batting woes.

Afif Hossain, regarded as one of the prodigies for Bangladesh in T20s, is failing to live up to the expectations.

He played eight innings in the T20 World Cup, where he reached double digits only twice and in the Super 12 stage, he scored only 14 runs from five matches. His poor for also continued during the series against Pakistan, and he is still struggling to find his form.

Afif was trying to play a length ball outside the leg stump, wanted to glance it over square leg but only manages to get an edge to the keeper after scoring just six runs.

Shamim Hossain earned a national team call due to his ability to score some quick runs, but since his debut, he has hardly scored.

He played two matches in the World Cup, where the entire team collapsed under 100 runs. His tidbits innings never really made any difference.

His woes continued during the Independence Cup, and in the first match of BPL, he showed poor judgement.

He tried to pull Alzarri Joseph’s bouncer over deep square leg but only found the deep fine leg fielder to get out for just 14.

Not only the youngsters, players like Najmul Hossain Shanto and Sabbir Rahman, who are not currently a part of the T20 side but aiming to make a comeback, are also guilty of the same charge.

Shanto was bowled by his age-level teammate Mehidy Hasan Miraz while trying to sweep across the line, whereas Sabbir wanted to go for the full swing against Shakib but ended up being trapped LBW.

But most probably, Shakib is guilty to the highest level for throwing his wicket away while trying to go for a wild swing against Miraz.

Shakib had the fair opportunity to take his side home as the target was small, but failed to keep his calm and ended up putting his team into jeopardy.

In his last three innings for Bangladesh, Shakib was out for 10, four and nine runs; he played two knocks in the Independence Cup where he scored 33 and 35 runs respectively.

In most cases, local cricketers blame the nature of the wicket, which is slow and low and often produce uneven bounce.

Shykat Ali, the 28-year-old opener from Barishal, played for the Bangladesh U-19 team long ago was the highest scorer among the locals with 39 runs from 35 balls, showing that it takes more determination than skillset to score runs on this surface.

Even Benny Howell also played a quickfire knock befitting with the tempo of T20, but both seasoned and promising cricketers from Bangladesh failed to produce a good batting show.

Tamim Iqbal showed it in the second match as he scored the first fifty of the tournament with much ease.

The wicket was fresh as it was just the opening game of the tournament, it was only the poor shot selection from the batsmen, ending their innings prematurely, and therefore the woe continues.