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Bangladesh cricketers are gearing up under new technical consultant Sridharan Sriram to face the spin trios of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, their opponents in the Asia Cup 2022 group stage in UAE.
Sriram, former spin-bowling assistant coach of the Australian team that won the T20 World Cup in UAE last year, has hired two spinners from Chennai to work as net bowlers during the practice sessions.
Bangladesh will face Afghanistan on August 30 in Sharjah and meet Sri Lanka on September 1 in Dubai.
Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are heavily loaded with spinners and considering the character of the wickets in UAE along with the temperature, both teams will field an extra spinner instead of a pacer. Therefore, three spinners in the playing XI is highly likely as both teams have ample options.
Afghanistan have Rashid khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman- very effective bowlers whose 12 overs in a T20 could be vital. The same goes for Sri Lanka, where there are leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, off-spinner Mahesh Theekshana and left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama, who can make batsmen’s life difficult.
Bangladesh already roped in leg-spinner Rishad Hossain as a net bowler. Sriram also brought two spinners from Tamilnadu so that Shakib and co can gear up before facing the top-ranked spinners.
Preparation to face the spin attack is obvious when the oppositions are Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. But Bangladesh have some other problems hidden under their poor show in T20s, which also need addressing.
Bangladesh have the lowest contribution from their top three batsmen in T20 among full member teams since the 2021 T20 World Cup. In 19 matches, the top three batsmen have scored only 997 runs, using up 42.6% of balls of the innings to score only 41.5% runs.
Mohammad Naim had been criticised for his poor strike rate and batting approach, but Bangladesh brought him back after dropping him in March.
His possible partner is Anamul Haque, who also had similar problems, but apparently, Bangladesh have no other options.
Selector Habibul Bashar told the media from Dubai that they have given the message to Naim.
“Naim is an option for us. He opened the innings for Bangladesh previously. But you all know that we want to do things differently this time. We have sent him the message already,” the former captain told the media.
Anamul is also trying to grab the chances after his return to international cricket.
“I love to hit sixes. I will try. Under the mentorship of the new coach (technical consultant) and new captain, we will surely improve,” said the right-handed batsman.
But his love for hitting sixes was not much visible in his batting. Since his return after almost five years, he has played six T20Is and hit only two sixes, which came in the same match, the first T20I of the three-match series against Zimbabwe. Despite his two sixes, he made 26 out of 27.
The middle order is also fragile. Bangladesh’s middle-order (position four to eight) has the lowest strike rate among the full-member teams since the last World Cup. Bangladesh have a strike rate of only 112.41 in the middle order, clearly showing why they fail to post big totals. 15 cricketers batted in those positions in 19 matches and played 88 innings, but the average is only 18.61.
All the problems are interconnected as a lack of ability to handle quality spin bowling brings up the premature end of the innings in most cases and also puts a leash on the score.
Having a few sessions at the nets with some IPL net bowlers might not elevate the situation, but could give a mental boost to the players, and sometimes, that can also do wonders.
