Will Mushfiqur mend middle-order issues?

Bangladesh have now won two successive T20I series -- one away to Zimbabwe and then the historic first-ever bilateral series triumph at home against Australia. If things don't go south, the Tigers are likely to make it three in three by winning the upcoming five-match T20I series against an inexperienced New Zealand, who are already in the country with a squad formed of players from outside their squad for the forthcoming T20 World Cup.

For a moment, if we sidestep the debate of the benefit of winning at favourable home conditions which is likely to be far from what the Tigers would be welcomed to at the UAE and Oman during the T20 extravaganza just two months away, the feat of successive T20 series triumph before the T20 World Cup should be commendable regardless, especially considering that the format has always been the Achilles' heel of Bangladesh cricket.

Even though the Tigers emerged victorious in their previous two T20 assignments, still there were areas of concern, especially in their batting. However, with the return of batting mainstay Mushfiqur Rahim for the series, Bangladesh can finally chalk out their batting approach ahead of the big event.

Mushfiqur, one of the regulars of Bangladesh cricket, had to leave the Zimbabwe series bio-bubble to return home early due to a family crisis and was forced out of the Australia series for not meeting the quarantine protocols. 

Even in their wins against Zimbabwe and Australia, Bangladesh's cricket, especially their batting, were not free of hitches. After Mohammad Naim and Soumya Sarkar put together the country's first-ever 100-run opening stand in T20Is to comfortably chase a 153-run target against Zimbabwe in the first T20I, the opening duo failed to maintain consistency in the following game. The dearth of consistency at the top has been a consistent facet of Bangladesh cricket for a while now and it ended up costing the Tigers in the second T20I, which ultimately ruined the hopes of a first-ever clean series sweep away from home across formats.

The inconsistency of the openers often impacts the middle-order adversely, like it did in the aforementioned game against Zimbabwe where Bangladesh lost Shakib Al Hasan, skipper Mahmudullah Riyad and Mahedi Hasan in the space of just two overs while chasing 166. And eventually, a contribution from Afif Hossain combined with quick-fire knocks from debutant Shamim Hossain and Mohammad Saifuddin only managed to reduce the margin of defeat as the Tigers missed a well-paced knock in the middle, something that Mushfiqur provides often.

The following Australia series, played in a slow, low and gripping Mirpur pitch, saw batsmen of both sides struggle throughout as boundaries were hard to come by. And the Tigers had fallen short in the department which demanded keeping the scoring rate ticking with sneaky singles and doubles.

Given that the nature of the Mirpur pitch, where all the matches against the Kiwis are scheduled to be held, is likely to keep behaving in a similar fashion, Bangladesh could at least expect an improvement in rotating the strike more often as Mushfiqur's guile, experience along with combination and understanding with the stalwarts Mahmudullah and Shakib could provide some much-needed stability in the middle-order.

The onus will also be on the 34-year-old, known as one of the most competitive and hard-working fellow in the national side, to get some runs before the T20 World Cup as the right-hander's last true contribution in the format was when his heroics -- an unbeaten 43-ball 60 -- helped Bangladesh beat India for the first time in T20Is, that too away from home in Delhi back in November 2019.