Nasum in against India?

Bangladesh’s next game in the ongoing 2022 T20 World Cup is against India and they have a question posing regarding their team selection for the game.

Throughout this World Cup, Bangladesh have focused on match-ups as seen by Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s inclusion in the XI against South Africa to tackle the left-handers in the Proteas XI (Quinton de Kock, Rilee Rossouw, David Miller).

The match-up ploy eventually did not work, but the idea was clear that Bangladesh will look to set up one-versus-one match-ups throughout the tournament.

And thus, ahead of the India clash, the question arrives, what way will Bangladesh go in case of creating a set-up for success?

The only way to go as it seems is the inclusion of left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed as Indian batters have struggled to deal with his kind in the recent past.

Data suggests that when facing left-arm spin, the Indian top and middle-order’s average generally goes up, but the strike rate, the more important metric in the shortest format, goes down severely.

India skipper Rohit Sharma averages 31.74 in T20Is with a strike rate of 140.13, but against left-arm spin, his strike rate goes down to 125, while his average rises to 35.83. In the format, he has been dismissed by left-arm spinners 12 times in 49 innings.

KL Rahul’s strike rate climbs to 147.36 from 138.75 when playing left-arm spinners, but he has been dismissed seven times in 28 innings against them in the format.

Virat Kohli’s strike rate drops to 120.67 compared to his career strike rate of 138.34 while facing left-arm spin though he has been dismissed only five times by that type of bowler in 41 innings.

The most drastic drop in strike rate against left-arm spin among the Indian batters is seen in Suryakumar Yadav’s case. He has a career strike rate of 177.02, but against left-arm spin, it’s only 128.30. He has been dismissed thrice by such bowlers in 17 T20I innings.

Hardik Pandya, the hard-hitting all-rounder, has a career strike rate of 146.03. But when it comes to left-arm spin, it’s down to 119.44, including three dismissals in 15 innings.

The strike rate stats of Indian batters against left-arm spin since the start of 2021 and up until the 2022 T20 World Cup give a clearer picture of their struggles. Rohit has a strike rate of 128, the only one among India’s top five to strike it over 120.

Kohli and Pandya have a strike rate of 97 and 95 respectively, while Rahul has a strike rate of 111 and Yadav 117.

Nasum’s record against right-handed batters is also something encouraging. In 26 innings, he has 21 wickets of right-handed batters, with an average of 19.47 and batters’ strike rate against him is 107.91.

When the 15-man squad for Bangladesh’s World Cup campaign was announced, it was revealed that Nasum was picked ahead of Shak Mahedi Hasan because he provided a better match-up against the Indian and Pakistani batters.

“We have picked Nasum because he has a great match-up against India and Pakistan’s top-order. We have Miraz and Mosaddek who can bowl off-spin,” Bangladesh T20 side’s technical consultant Sridharan Sriram said when Nasum was picked in the 15-man squad.

Whether Nasum will be picked or not remains a question that will be answered on Wednesday. But as the data suggests, his selection could give Bangladesh an edge in a fight where they are not the favourites.

And if Nasum comes in, Yasir Ali Chowdhury might return to the bench again, like he did against South Africa to allow Mehidy a place in the XI.