The Mustafizur question adds to Tigers' woes

The Pakistan defeat at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata served a big blow to the Tigers on Wednesday. And it was quite evident as they waited at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport for a flight to Bangalore to play their next ICC World T20 match against Australia on March 21.

They were not in a mood to talk. They might have had fun among themselves while embarking on a two-hour-fifteen-minute Jet Airways flight and had also clapped (for the captain) the moment the plane touched down on the runway of the Kempegowda International Airport, named after the founding father of Bangalore. But they were certainly licking the wounds of that 55-run defeat, which not only upset their rhythm but also put them in a very dicey situation in a group that also features Australia, hosts India and a very competitive New Zealand.

Former Bangladesh captain Akram Khan, now chairman of the Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB's) cricket operations committee, told this reporter yesterday that the players looked a bit tired in Wednesday's game. According to him, it was reflected in the fielding. Besides, he said that the bowlers also did not bowl well.

After a harrowing experience in Kolkata, the Bangladesh cricket team will hope for better times in Bangalore, where they arrived yesterday to play against Australia in their second ICC World Twenty20 match on Monday. PHOTO: BCB

“I think we did not bowl at a good pace and that helped Pakistan, especially Afridi, to score heavily,” said Akram while travelling with the team to Bangalore.

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal also accepted that 200 was too big a total for them to chase down.

It is true that it was one of those bad days; nothing clicked for Bangladesh starting from the toss. But are we not missing a vital point amidst the tiring issues of misreading the wicket and bowling not so well?

Let's talk about the last-minute decision to drop Mustafizur Rahman on fitness grounds. It is understood that the young pace bowler was not 100 per cent fit. But then the obvious question is why they are carrying him that long with the knowledge that he might not be fit for the Pakistan game, which is perhaps the most important and one of their easier Super 10 fixtures.

We are not sure if any team in the world will carry even their best bowler or batsman so long in the hope that he might be able to play some part of a tournament of this magnitude. Still, why did we carry him? It is because he is a future asset for Bangladesh and capable of turning a match on its head. And many feel Bangladesh should have risked him against Pakistan, a team that not only lost against Bangladesh in their previous five games, but also were on a bit of a low going into the Eden contest.

It might have been the case that Pakistan could still have won that game. But we are not convinced that they would have scored 200 runs. The Bangladesh team management is confident that he will be fit for the Australia game and may play against hosts India. But it would be hard to blame someone who thinks that it is too late for Bangladesh to play a game of catch-up.