Tigers yet to sort out opening pair

Bangladesh only have two days on their hand before they take on Netherlands in their opening match of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia at Hobart, but they are yet to decide upon the opening pair.

The Tigers’ training session in Brisbane on Thursday cleared up little confusion as both Najmul Hossain Shanto and Soumya Sarkar spent considerable time in the nets and so did Liton Das.

Bangladesh are likely to opt for a left-right combination at the top, meaning Liton is a guaranteed starter there. But who will partner him is the question as neither Najmul nor Soumya has had the best times with the bat in recent times.

Bangladesh’s technical consultant Sridharan Sriram was seen spending a considerable amount of time with the openers. During the Tigers’ training session, their first opponent was still unknown, and Sriram inferred that while answering questions about the opening pair.

“We still don’t know who we are playing (in our first match). But I know what our best XI is. But we don’t know the opponent. It (the batting order) will depend on the opponent and might change based on that,” he said.

The Indian coach also stated that rather than openers, the focus should be on the team.

“We have to look at Bangladesh as a team. Why is there so much focus on the openers? We have to learn how to win. We need to think about the second part of the innings- the last 10 overs of batting, and the last 10 overs of bowling,” he said.

Sriram added, “When we play as a team, the boys will be able to understand their roles. Everybody is now flexible with their batting lineup. Look at Australia, (Aaron) Finch is batting at four, and Cameron Green is opening. We will have to be flexible. A fixed batting order is not important in T20s. We need to think about matchups.”

Sriram also said that the team must break down the matches into small parts for success.

“We have to break down the matches and try to win each smaller game. Thinking about those moments will be important. I don’t think we should keep all five matches in our heads going forward. We have to go match-by-match and keep the focus on that particular match,” the Bangladesh technical consultant said.

While the team lost all four of their matches in New Zealand, Sriram said the energy within the team was positive.

“The boys are very positive. The boys are learning every day. The discussions they are having among themselves are excellent. Shakib (Al Hasan) is doing a great job promoting them. The boys are speaking a lot in the team meetings, it’s not just us coaches. This is very positive,” Sriram said.