Image Credit- AP
With his fists, Mohammad Ashraful produced a sound
that only batters seeing other batters can. The way Mahmudullah had worked his
wrists to play the square-cut off Mohammad Wasim in the 17th over, he stroked
his right hand with his left palm. Ashraful is employed by a Bangladeshi TV
channel as an analyst. Being a keen observer and statistician, Ashraful
silently bowed his head to match Mahmudullah’s posture.
With his fists, Mohammad Ashraful produced a sound
that only batters seeing other batters can. The way Mahmudullah had worked his
wrists to play the square-cut off Mohammad Wasim in the 17th over, he stroked
his right hand with his left palm. Ashraful is employed by a Bangladeshi TV
channel as an analyst. Being a keen observer and statistician, Ashraful
silently bowed his head to match Mahmudullah’s posture.
“But, what can we do now?” Ashraful
exclaimed.
Regret was definitely in the air as Bangladesh’s World
Cup journey entered its seventh game. A little common sense and more careful
planning could have given this competition a different viewpoint. Rather, it is
one that clearly illustrates how inflexible the Bangladeshi team administration
is when it comes to their batting lineup.
After seven matches in the competition, they were able
to revert to their traditional batting lineup against Pakistan. For the first
time this year, Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim moved back up the order. It was
Mahmudullah’s first time batting above No. 6 since August 2022. After seven
months, Mushfiqur was back at number four.
Najmul Hossain Shanto batted at three, Shakib at six,
and Towhid Hridoy and Mehidy Hasan Miraz at seven and eight as a result of the
alterations. If Shakib Al Hasan’s 64-ball struggle had yielded a bigger reward,
or if Litton’s soft dismissal had not occurred, this lineup might have
succeeded. With regard to Bangladesh’s World Cup campaign, these regrets are
not new. Mahmudullah ended up getting Shaheen Shah Afridi’s finest ball of the
day on Tuesday, even though he appeared set.
Nonetheless, neither the mixed zone nor any
representative of the Bangladeshi hierarchy was present at the news briefing.
More information regarding their batting strategies would have been
interesting, but their decision to send Mehidy to No. 8 and elevate Mahmudullah
and Mushfiqur to the top ranks said volumes about their thinking.
Later in the World Cup build-up phase, captain Shakib
and coach Chandika Hathurusingha made all the decisions after Tamim Iqbal was
cut from the team. Nevertheless, it currently appears that their intention to
introduce a modified identity to their batting strategy during the World Cup
will only be cosmetic.
Hathurusinghe and Shakib just lacked a backup plan.
That could seem oversimplified, and some could counter that Mehidy’s rotation
was evidence that they were making an effort. However, it appears now that
Mehidy’s action was their backup plan. Bangladesh gave away their entire
batting lineup in order to take a shortcut that was always likely to fail.
It is really difficult to believe that Tamim caused
issues for everyone. His falling out with BCB captain Hassan shouldn’t affect
the team’s future cricketing aspirations. Instead, Hassan agitated him with an
interview before pleading with him to leave retirement.
Bangladesh thought the team would quickly forget
Tamim’s outstanding leadership when they ultimately fired Tamim before the
World Cup in the midst of yet another embarrassing incident. Since Mashrafe
Mortaza resigned in 2020, he had built a solid team around himself, bringing
the team great success with his no-nonsense style and blending in nicely with
Russell Domingo’s strategy of giving players space to think.
That being said, Shakib and Hathurusinghe are not
comparable. In their respective second terms as coach and captain, they have
both had difficulties. This is true even though BCB CEO Hassan gave them both
the go-ahead and flexibility to make their own selections. Hassan rarely gives
the team management this much latitude, but maybe this was due of Shakib’s
prominence in the cricket world. Within the BCB inner circle, Hathurusinghe is
also highly esteemed. After everything has calmed down, perhaps it is time for
a BCB member—possibly even the president—to take the initiative and put the two
under some pressure.