Not an upset

The deafening roar of the Scottish players from an adjacent room disrupted the rhythm of the Bangladesh T20I skipper Mahmudullah Riyad, who was fielding questions with a glum face at the presser after Bangladesh's six-run defeat against Scotland in the two sides' T20 World Cup opener in Oman on Sunday.

This particular incident reflected precisely how the day went for Bangladesh – bleak, with Scotland dominating proceedings for the most part of the game. With that win, Scotland remained perfect against the Tigers with two wins out of two in the format while Bangladesh succumbed to their 20th defeat in T20 World Cups -- most by any team who have played all the previous six editions of the marquee event.

However, despite the Tigers losing to a side ranked eight places below in the T20I rankings, it clearly wasn't an upset. There were signs, which the Tigers' team management was aware of but chose to ignore. And if the team management, at some point, claims to have not seen the signs, it would only mean that the ones at the helm need to refine their own thought process.

Bangladesh boasted about the 'winning momentum' they took to the Middle East for the tournament. Only looking at the statistics would make their claim true as the Tigers won seven of their last 10 games, registering maiden T20I series victories against Australia and New Zealand in the process, before they faced Kyle Coetzer's side.

So, how did the Tigers suffer such a humiliating defeat against an associate member despite being in such a rich vein of form in T20Is? Bangladesh did lose both of their official T20 World Cup practice games -- against Sri Lanka and Ireland in the UAE -- prior to the main tournament. But even before those defeats, there were indications of an impending mishap.

The 20 innings played at the slow and low Mirpur pitches during the Tigers' 10 previous T20Is yielded runs at a 110.4 average per innings. And only once in those games the Tigers were asked to chase a score above 140. That only meant that even though Bangladesh won most of the low-scoring affairs, they were out of the habit of chasing a score that is even considered par in T20Is -- and hence their failures in chasing Scotland's 140 for nine on Sunday and Ireland's 177 for three in the official warm-up game were inevitable.

The slow nature of the Mirpur surfaces also meant Bangladesh were unable to rectify their shortcomings, especially the discernible ones in the top-order of Bangladesh's batting line-up. The Tigers' average score for the opening stand in the last 10 games has been 21 despite using as many as four different players in the opening slot.

There were concerns in the middle order as well. Bangladesh's batting mainstay Mushfiqur Rahim has been trying to find his old rhythm since returning to the side against the Kiwis last month while Shakib Al Hasan still battling to find his form with the willow.

Would it not have been wiser if the team management opted to prepare sporting wickets in those 10 matches to help get the batters amongst runs even if it meant a few extra defeats?

The signs were very clear. But unfortunately, at the end, probably the 'winning momentum' is all that mattered for the Tigers' team management.