Tigers’ freefall not just the batters’ making

There was a lot of discussion in the Bangladesh camp about how to stop the slide ahead of the Pakistan game at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata yesterday.

But those pep talks had little impact in arresting the freefall, which saw the Tigers slump to their sixth straight defeat in this World Cup, with Pakistan romping to a seven-wicket victory.

A defeat for Bangladesh was all but written on the wall at the halfway mark when they were bundled out for 204, thanks to an all-too-familiar top-order collapse.

Bangladesh were reduced to 3-23 inside the first Powerplay, from where they did not recover despite a battling 56 from Mahmudullah and 40-plus contributions from Liton Das and an embattled Shakib Al Hasan.

The top-order collapse in the first Powerplay has been the biggest headache for the Tigers in this World Cup.

In the seven games they have played, the Tigers lost 16 wickets – the highest by a long margin among the 10 teams. There was only one occasion when the Tigers did not lose a wicket in the first Powerplay -- a 93-run stand between openers Tanzid Hasan and Liton against India.

Defending champions England, who are now struggling at the bottom of the 10-team table with one win, come second on that unenviable list, losing 13 wickets in the first Powerplay overs in six games.

Although the failure of the English juggernaut in this World Cup is inexplicable, an experiment-happy Bangladesh team management should be blamed for the reasons behind the team's downfall – starting from leaving behind a tried and tested opener in Tamim Iqbal at the last moment on fitness ground to juggling with the batting order in almost every game they have played so far.

The team management took the gamble of carrying only two openers, with young Tanzid having very little experience of playing international cricket before. The left-handed batter scored 100 runs in seven games including a 51.

Liton has also failed with the bat and so has one-down Nazmul Hossain, despite the latter having scored a lot of runs coming into the World Cup. Skipper Shakib has been a pale shadow of his brilliant former self, especially with the bat.

Mushfiqur Rahim has also failed to do justice to his reputation as Mr. Dependable. The only shining light in an otherwise lacklustre batting line-up has been Mahmudullah, who grabbed his last-minute inclusion with both hands and scored the only century for Bangladesh in this competition so far.

Bangladesh, as a batting unit, have been an abject failure in this World Cup. They seemed to have forgotten how to construct an innings as a unit, which used to be a hallmark of the side since 2015.

The players are certainly to be blamed for the team's failure, but there are many more characters who should share the blame.

However, for the moment, the sole focus should be on the two remaining games against Sri Lanka and Australia before having a dig into the reasons behind the collective implosion.