The Bangladesh team has played four matches in the T20 World Cup so far. The batting powerplay performance of the Bangladesh team in each match was average (35 in four matches). The main reason for the failure of opener Liton Das. Mohammad Naeem batted slowly from one side and Liton was given the responsibility to run fast at the beginning of the innings. But a quick run from Liton’s bat is a far cry, Bangladesh is not getting a run.
Since the beginning of this year, Liton has been losing all his cool by taking time to start the innings. Giving the opponent’s bowlers a chance to sit down, he is also losing the chance to run in the powerplay. When it comes time to run fast in Powerplay, he is wasting time to settle himself. Once settled, Liton took extra time in the hope that he would be able to play big innings. But his goal is not being met. You can play a big innings – no, you are wasting the ball out.
In the first match of the World Cup against Scotland, he left the crease and hit 30 yards. Bilal Khan’s swing against Oman was defeated. The off-spinner was caught out in the third leg of the first leg against Papua New Guinea. He returned with a catch at 30 yards in the match against Sri Lanka tomorrow. Before being dismissed, Liton played 17 balls and scored 17 runs. If the score had been 30 off 16 balls, Liton’s out would not have looked so eye-catching.
But at the moment, the most important thing is to regain Liton’s confidence. It is difficult to play like yourself without regaining self-confidence — it is very easy. That is what is emerging in Liton’s batting. An innings of 20-30 runs in the powerplay of T20 can also be effective many times. But the important question is what is the innings of that 20-30 runs, what is the strike rate of that batsman. Standing on such an innings, the next batsmen can take the team’s run to a respectable place. But as Liton did not play well at the start of Bangladesh’s innings, the rest of the batting is under additional pressure, which is having an impact on the team’s collection.
Don’t look back a little over a year ago. A year ago he played big innings very regularly, that’s not the case. But at that time he would run fast. At that time his strike rate was around 140. That means he would have given the team a quick start even if he hadn’t played a big innings. In the first five years of his six-year T20 career, where his strike rate hovered around 140, it has now dropped to 128.
The story is the same in terms of batting strategy. Liton played his best T20 in the 2019-20 season. At that time he was running consistently for the national team, BPL. At that time, there was no tendency to play with the head of a fielder at 30 yards in the batting powerplay. Instead, he would find a boundary through the gaps in the field. This year, Liton is looking for a risky path for four-sixes.
Bangladesh needs Liton a year ago at this moment.
Bangladesh needs Liton a year ago at this moment.