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The Asia Cup-bound cricketers of the Bangladesh national cricket team played an intra-squad practice match at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Sunday where some uncapped youngsters were also roped in to fill the roster.
But there was no visible display of aggressive, fearless cricket that the team director Khaled Mahmud had been asking from the cricketers in the match between the Red team and the Green team where the latter won by four wickets.
Instead, the T20 match was a poor demonstration of the Bangladeshi brand of cricket which lacks power-hitting abilities among the batters and the street-smart approach among the bowlers.
Since Bangladesh played poor cricket against West Indies and Zimbabwe in Twenty20 Internationals in which the batters were struggling to score runs at a higher-strike rate, Mahmud had been very vocal about installing a fearless mindset and positive intent.
But those qualities were hardly visible when seasoned cricketers like Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, and even Shakib Al Hasan were batting against local bowlers.
Mahmudullah and Mushfiq were rested from T20I in the Zimbabwe series, the former lost his captaincy as well due to his poor form. even against uncapped local bowlers, they failed to show their supremacy after playing international cricket for more than a decade.
There was only one fielder placed at deep fine leg when Mahmudullah was batting against Ashiquzzaman, a right-arm medium pacer who was part of the U-19 team that played in the World Cup early this year.
Mahmudullah could not generate enough power for his shorter bat swing due to his low back-lift and just guided the ball to Rishad Hossain who did not have to move an inch to take the catch. The veteran all-rounder was out for just 12 runs in nine balls where he hit only a six.
Mushfiq got victim of playing reverse sweep in crunch situations and looks like his habit is fading away as he was dismissed while attempting a sweep-shot against Nasum Ahmed and ended up giving a catch to Tanjid Hasan Tamim. He made 22 from 17 balls and hit only one four and a six.
Shakib Al Hasan and Anamul Haque were lucky as the management sent them twice to bat in a T20 match, Shakib made the most out of his second life but Anamul struggled both times.
Anamaul got out cheaply just after scoring four runs, in the second attempt he made 19 runs. Shakib got out after scoring 17 runs from 13 balls against Ebadot Hossain, coming back to bat again he made 36 runs from 24 balls.
The Red team altogether hit 10 sixes in their entire innings where Shakib alone hit four, Mosaddek and Anamul hit two sixes each.
The Red team posted a mediocre total of 165 -7 in 20 overs where a couple of batters batted twice.
During the closing overs of their innings, the Red team got a six in the very first ball multiple times but could not convert the overs in a big-scoring one like the way Ryan Burl or Brendon King did against Bangladesh.
On the chase, Robin and makeshift opener Mehidy Hasan Miraz negotiated the bowlers well and the Green team went past fifty in the power-play. Afif Hossain slowed down the tempo with his unlikely ugly eight-run inning from 15 balls which was ended by Hasan Murad.
Saifuddin showed some glimpses after recovering from injury along with Shak Mahediy Hasan, both played effective knocks. As the total was small the bowlers could not impose any pressure on the batting side. Mahedy batted for both the teams, he was out for a duck for the Reds but scored 31* runs off 16 deliveries with seven fours for the Greens.
Shakib told the reporters on Saturday that nothing is going to change overnight and exactly that happened, clueless batting followed by linear bowling gives ominous signs before the Tigers embark on their journey for the Asia Cup where they must secure a win against either Afghanistan or Sri Lanka in order to play in the super-four round.
