First of all, congratulations to the Bangladesh
cricket team for such an emphatic win against Zimbabwe
in both the Test series and the one-day series. Their dominating performances
recently have made up for all the frustrations regarding the Tigers throughout
the year. After losing 22 matches out of 27 across all formats till mid-September,
such a performance has certainly reinstalled the lost confidence not just in
the team but also among the fans.
But one must not forget about the poor state of Zimbabwe
cricket, and time and again, their lack of experience showed up. To Bangladesh ’s
credit, they have been able to capitalize on the weaknesses of Zimbabwe
smartly.
Th Bangladesh bowlers, especially the spinners, were
instrumental in thrashing Zimbabwe, but it’s hard to ignore the struggle of the
Bangladeshi batsmen, with them losing a couple of quick wickets almost every
time, and how they were found wanting against Tinashe Panyangara’s sharp pace
and testing short-pitched bowling on placid tracks.
Even on batting-friendly tracks, the shakiness of the
batsmen against a less competent pace attack was quite alarming as Bangladesh’s
next mission will be the ICC World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand,
where the conditions are hostile for the teams from the subcontinent.
The Tigers will face a tough challenge Down Under as they
are not accustomed to playing in such conditions. They last toured Australia
way back in 2008 and New Zealand
in 2010. Except a few, a majority of the players have no idea about what
playing in Australia
and New Zealand
means.
Neither in the batting nor in the bowling department, do Bangladesh
have the players to put up a good show in Australia
and New Zealand .
Yes, there is a Shakib Al Hasan, but only one man can’t be relied upon to win
every match.
Technically, Bangladesh
batsmen lack an immaculate defence and are not very good back foot players. The
batsmen lose their mojo whenever they are out of their comfort zone. Then,
relying only on finger spinners can never fetch success as the hard and bouncy
tracks in Australia
are not helpful for off-spinners.
Leg-spinners, on the contrary, have always been productive
Down Under, as a result of which Jubair Hossain is the new hope, but he is
still too young to reap rich rewards on the biggest stage of them all.
Moreover, in Australia
and New Zealand ,
medium-fast bowling can hardly pose a threat. A team needs a pace bowler who
has the ability to bowl back of a length around the off-stump with sharp pace
and deliver yorkers in the death overs consistently.
It was expected that the Bangladesh
hierarchy would prepare pace-friendly tracks during the one-day series against Zimbabwe
which would have helped the players a lot.
As a matter of fact, Bangladesh
have never planned for the World Cup in an appropriate manner. Preparing
seaming and bouncy tracks in domestic cricket or at least in one or two
international matches has never been given sufficient importance. Moreover,
sending the junior teams to Australia
and New Zealand
was never initiated. Such tours would have been a big learning curve for the
Tigers.
Time is short and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has plenty
of work to do. They could possibly look at appointing someone like Aminul Islam
as a consultant, who has a very good idea about Australian conditions, in the
lead-up to the World Cup.
The current coach Chandika Hathurusingha is undoubtedly a
very competent one, but he has not had enough time to organize his men well. With
just a couple of months left for the quadrennial event, whether he can prepare
his team well enough for Bangladesh
to at least compete remains a moot question.
Note: This article has been published in Sportskeeda on 5/12/2014 A challenging journey awaiting Bangladesh at the 2015 ICC World Cup
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
No comments:
Post a Comment