Najmul makes it count

Najmul Hossain Shanto had faced hard criticism over his batting in the past few matches but he finally made his opportunity count as he scored 71 off 55 balls in Bangladesh’s game against Zimbabwe which propelled the Tigers to a total of 150-7.

Batting first, Najmul held on to one end as the other batters struggled to find a flow. His innings might be worthy of some reproach because of his approach before his fifty, but once he achieved his maiden milestone, Najmul let loose.

It took him 45 balls to reach his first-ever fifty in Twenty20 Internationals, but in the next nine deliveries before getting out, Najmul scored 21 and gave Bangladesh the boost they required.

Before this match, his stats in the format were looking pretty dire. Not just the runs or the strike rate, but he only had one six in his T20I career. He finally managed another one and hit seven boundaries, which allowed him to notch up a good score with a 129 strike rate.

After the match, Najmul expectedly marked this innings as his finest in the shortest format.

“Yeah, I think it was my best innings because this is my first fifty in T20I cricket. So, very special.

“I was getting starts but couldn’t convert them. I committed that if I could get set, I would try to make it big. I could finally do it,” he said in the post-match press conference.

Before the match against Zimbabwe, Najmul only had an average of 13.87 and a strike rate of 103.73, which led to disapproval around him. But Najmul said that he never felt much pressure as everybody was by his side.

“It would be wrong to say that I was under severe pressure. From team management to the captain, and senior players- everybody was by my side. Everybody supported me. I did not try to do anything new in my innings. I was failing to convert the starts, so that was my plan,” Najmul explained.

His low strike rate has been a concern and it was also on Sunday until he went past fifty, but Najmul said he never thought about it too much.

“I did not think too much about my strike rate, I saw the ball and reacted accordingly. I tried to play according to the team’s plan. I was not much worried about my strike rate. I think I tried to play according to the team’s demands and plans,” he said.

Najmul became the first Bangladeshi batter this time around to hit a fifty, and Bangladesh will be hoping he can find some new levels of form as they now enter the final stretch to reach the semis.