Opening woes clear in Tamim's absence
Bangladesh fans were already reeling from the news that pacer Taskin Ahmed and spinner Arafat Sunny would not be playing in the ICC World Twenty20 after their actions were found to be illegal. Then, at the toss before the Group 2 match against Australia, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza dropped the bombshell that in-form opener and one of the leaders of the batting group Tamim Iqbal will miss the match through illness.
That late setback was as debilitating for Bangladesh as the news of their two fallen brethren, and not just because Tamim is a fine player. It was also because without Tamim, the personnel in charge of opening the batting have proven to be inept. Since the heady days of July 2015 when he carried all before him in the ODI series against South Africa, Tamim's opening partner Soumya Sarkar has averaged 16.28 in 14 T20Is at a strike rate of 108.57. Only three of his innings have exceeded 25 during that time, while he has been dismissed for less than 20 in eight of those innings. Tamim's replacement Mohammad Mithun, though he hit some form yesterday, entered the game with an average of 10 from his nine T20Is before yesterday's game.
Apart from the numbers, Soumya has displayed a consummate inability to handle the moving ball; Nathan Coulter-Nile's early movement yesterday had him playing down the wrong line repeatedly, and it was his good fortune that he was not dismissed off one of the two inside-edged shots that went past the stumps in the first over. What makes his struggles especially frustrating is that he seems to have no plan for when, as has become inevitable recently, he cannot find the boundaries.
The opening partnership yesterday seemed to be a mandatory period of struggle that had to be undergone before Bangladesh's effective batsmen came out. Tamim may well be back for tomorrow's match against India, but that solves only half the problem. The team management has shown an acute lack of imagination and flexibility while dealing with the opening problem. The obvious question in such a scenario is who could replace Tamim's misfiring partner at the top if the two seen yesterday have not been up to the mark, which may lead one to wonder how much worse batsmen lower down the order could fare than the incumbents. Re-jigging the batting order has become an essential skill of successful T20 sides. Meanwhile, Bangladesh hold on to their batting sequence as if it is a battle-hardened Test top six.
Apart from Sabbir Rahman and Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad has been the batsman in red-hot form. Yesterday after the Tigers had limped to 62 for three in 9.2 overs, instead of Riyad -- who has had five unbeaten innings the last nine times he walked out to bat -- coming in and taking the innings by the scruff of its neck, Shuvagata Hom was pushed out at number four a day after disembarking a flight to Bangalore. Riyad came in at the fall of the fourth wicket and still managed to hit a peerless 29-ball 49, leaving many wondering, as usual, why he had not come in earlier.
Ask the captain, and he will tell you that Riyad plays well lower down the order, but increasingly it sounds like Riyad is kept in reserve in anticipation of a batting collapse, which in turn raises questions about the self-belief this team proudly proclaims it has.
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