From being viewed as a major threat in the tournament to finding themselves at the brink of exit in the qualification round, Bangladesh are in murky waters.
Two defeats in the warm-up games, followed by the one against Scotland in their tournament opener, has hampered Bangladesh’s dream to make an impact in the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Their match against an in-form Oman is more like a knockout. If they crack under pressure, it will undoubtedly be their lowest ebb as they made gradual progress in all the recent ICC tournaments.
The pressure from all their stakeholders remains high as the country desperately vies to shed off the underdog tag.
Bangladesh’s squad for 2021 T20 World Cup
Mahmudullah (c), Liton Das (wk), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Nurul Hasan (wk), Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Afif Hossain, Mohammed Naim, Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Mohammad Saifuddin, Shamim Hossain
Travelling reserves: Aminul Islam Biplob and Rubel Hossain
Head coach: Russell Domingo
T20 World Cup Editions Participated: All six editions since 2007
Best T20 World Cup results: Super 8s in 2007
ICC T20I Ranking: 6
SWOT Analysis
Strengths: Bangladesh have relied on their versatile bowling attack to win games lately. Nasum and Mahedi have been outstanding. Add Shakib’s experience to the attack; they have one of the best spin attacks for the Gulf conditions.
Mustafizur and Shoriful have been their standout pacers this year. They also have the support of Taskin and Saifuddin. There’s further depth in the bowling as captain Mahmudullah, Afif, and Sarkar can chip in too.
Bangladesh are an experienced side with much better exposure in international cricket than their other Group B opponents.
Weakness: Bangladesh’s batting has let them down, and the most recent example was their loss against Scotland on Sunday in their opening game. They heavily relied on their bowling to win games, as seen in the home series victories against Australia and New Zealand earlier this year.
Earlier this year, in a T20I in New Zealand, Bangladesh became the first full member side to be bowled out inside 10 overs in international cricket.
Since 2020, Bangladesh have averaged 19 with the bat, striking under 108.
Opportunities: Bangladesh displayed great promise in the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup. Despite the conditions not suiting their strengths, their batting stood up and delivered. The compressed format throws more challenge to their batters, but this is their chance to come out of the shadows of being underdogs and pose a threat.
The conditions in Oman and the UAE aren’t too different from Bangladesh, where they recently mauled Australia and New Zealand.
With experienced cricketers like Mushfiqur, Shakib, Mahmudullah, Mustafizur and Sarkar, they have a good youth-experience blend. If the batters lend adequate support to the bowlers, Bangladesh have a great opportunity to script their greatest cricketing story.
Threats: Bangladesh have too many players donning similar roles. It can be a risk in big games against better teams. Also, they have been spin-reliant, with pacers playing supporting roles. If the spinners are under the pump, can the pacers rise to the occasion?
Also, a string of losses have put Bangladesh under immense pressure. If the two warm-up losses against Sri Lanka and Ireland weren’t enough to dent their confidence, their T20 World Cup campaign dealt another massive blow after a shock defeat against Scotland in their tournament opener.
Can they start afresh against Oman? Or will they crumble under pressure? The fan expectations across the globe are tremendous. Why not? Bangladesh’s infrastructure and experience clearly outweigh their Group B opponents.
If they fail to qualify to the Super 12s, the outrage back home can derail Domingo’s journey and vision with the side. The BCB President’s comments after the Scotland defeat were an indicator of the impatience factor.
“A team can lose but the approach should be right. The approach and the attitude were not right. The way our batsmen batted, that included Shakib, Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah, we lost the match there. We will not be able to chase in this format if we display such batting. Every batsmen of this team knows about this. I think their approach and strategy were not right at all.
“Even Akram Khan (BCB cricket operation chairman) was saying why we dropped Naim as we have invested in him and wanted to play him in the T20 World Cup. I think we should have changed the batting order as we lost two early wickets inside three overs. It was a major mistake. It’s not like someone will have to play at three or at four; what I feel is that the batting line up should have changed depending on the match situation. We played run-a-ball cricket and this is not acceptable in T20 cricket which we played against Scotland,” said Nazmul Hasan, the BCB boss, after the Scotland defeat.
Bangladesh’s likely XI: Mohammad Naim, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah (c), Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan (wk), Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman
Bangladesh’s fixtures
- Sunday, 17 October: Scotland beat Bangladesh, Muscat
- Tuesday, 19 October: Bangladesh vs Oman, Muscat
- Thursday, 21 October: Bangladesh vs Papa New Guinea, Muscat