Powerplay is a crucial part of the T20 games where batters have the liberty to go for good shots in the first 6 overs while getting settled at the crease. Every good cricketing side focuses on hammering the opponent during this time. With the rise of various franchise cricket leagues worldwide, more and more specialized hard hitters are gaining attention with their sheer power. However, for Bangladesh powerplay is still like a mystery.
As Bangladesh’s group D will see their first match tonight according to the Bangladeshi time between Sri Lanka and South Africa – the cricketing fraternity of Bangladesh is worried about their top order for the upcoming match against Sri Lanka on 8 June. And the reasons are apparent – in the last 10 T20Is Bangladesh scored only around 39 runs on average in the first 6 overs while they also gave away almost 2 wickets on an average. During these 10 matches, Bangladesh lost a series against the USA by 2-1 and lost two games against India and Sri Lanka. In the warm-up match against India, the Tigers scored merely 27 runs off the first 36 balls while losing 3 top-order batters. Sri Lanka made the situation even worse for the host Bangladeshis 25/5!
Although Bangladesh dominated in the series against Zimbabwe, the African nation has been out of the ICC tournaments several times in recent years. During the given time frame on two occasions Tigers also spent the powerplay without losing a single wicket – 48/0 against the last match against USA where they also claimed a 10 wickets victory and 57/0 against the 4th match of the 5-match series against Zimbabwe.
It’s a matter of fact that, Bangladesh’s woe in the powerplay is not a new thing. In the 2021 T20 World Cup, on average (apart from the match against PNG) the Tigers scored only 30 runs in the powerplay while giving away 3 wickets and 17 dot balls. With the same amount of average dot balls, Bangladesh took 42 runs while losing 2 wickets on average in the next year’s tournament in Australia thanks to Liton’s exceptional form. But this year alongside him, skipper Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Soumya Sarkar are also out of form. The poor exhibition by this trio is limiting the team’s overall score in batting.
Bangladesh tried some combination over the recent years – they brought Rony Talukdar who was discontinued after only a few series and now the Tigers lack a proper combination with the top-order continuously collapsing, who knows what’s in the fate for the team in this tournament as well.
