Tigers weakened by the strong hand

Bangladesh's batting was again the weak point in their 45-run loss to India on Wednesday. Faced with a challenging total on a greenish pitch, Bangladesh's top order could neither handle the moving ball nor did they have the wherewithal to get their eyes in and cash in later when the Indian spinners would have come on and have had to contend with the batting and the dew on the ground.

The odd loss in the game's shortest format cannot be seen as shattering; the brief nature of the game and the role luck plays make it difficult to maintain the sort of consistency the Tigers have shown in 50-over cricket in 2015. But this was not the odd loss; it was a continuation of a terrible T20 record. Also technical shortcomings may not be rectified overnight or even over the course of three training camps. But when there are tactical shortcomings like those displayed on Wednesday, it is a cause for frustration and may point to a deeper malaise in how Bangladesh approach their least favoured format.

Bangladesh's most technically adept and arguably best batsman is Mushfiqur Rahim, but he came in to bat in the 13th over at number six. Meanwhile, a struggling Sarkar, an untried Mohammad Mithun and an unproven Imrul Kayes was entrusted with the top three positions. All three were back in the hut with the score on 50 and half the overs consumed.

Mushfiqur is adept at picking the singles and then later opening his shoulders, which he can do as well as anyone in the country, therefore a higher position in the order seems a no-brainer. And if Mahmudullah Riyad, who is not as adept at rotating the strike early on but can be deadly with his eye in as he showed in the World Cup down under, is to be persisted with he is completely wasted at number seven, where he batted on Wednesday. 

After the match skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza said the reason for Mushfiqur's low placement was the strategy of maintaining a right-hand, left-hand batting combination. If the right-handed Sabbir Rahman had gotten out Mushfiqur would have come in, and if southpaw Soumya did not get out first Imrul would not have. This was because, in Mashrafe's words, “their main bowler was [Ravichandran] Ashwin.”

What Ashwin, an off-spinner who can also bowl the ball that leaves the right-hander, has to do with it is anyone's guess, but this obsession with the left-right combination is a familiar one in Bangladesh cricket, and it increasingly seems that it is unique to the Tigers.

Assuming that they want to climb up the T20 rankings, a look at the top teams reveal the flaw in this obsession. Top-ranked India have a static combination of the left-handed Shikhar Dhawan followed by the right-handed Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the top three. Second-ranked South Africa's top three positions in the batting order are occupied by right-handers Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis. The point is not that Bangladesh do not have a de Villiers or a Kohli, but that the players like Mushfiqur they do have are not being utilised in the short space that a T20 innings provides.

In the dark days of 2014, Bangladesh lost an ODI against Sri Lanka after having them eight down for 67 chiefly because then skipper Mushfiqur thought, without considering the quality of the bowler, that the off-spin of Riyad would be a better option than the likes of Shakib Al Hasan and Arafat Sunny -- who had caused most of the damage -- against the left-handed Thisara Perera. The current obsession with something coincidental like a batsman's stronger hand over the strategic importance of which batsman is likely to be more successful harkens back to those dark days.

On the bowling side of things, Mashrafe has proven a very proactive captain, always putting the best foot forward with a view to winning the game, regardless of what arm the bowler bowls with. Perhaps it is time he replicates that in his approach to T20 batting.