Ten matches played so far in five days at SBNCS completing the first round of 5 teams’ T20 tournament organized by BCB to commemorate the birth centenary of father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.  

But with the exception of the excitements of the two matches first day and the very last match other 7 matches can be summarized as apology for T20 cricket. The explosive batting, excellent bowling, sharp fielding those feature T20 cricket was sadly missing. Teams huffed and puffed scoring 120-130 runs. In few matches teams like Khulna and Dhaka could not even post 100.  Cannot say wickets were mine fields for batting. The batsmen could not get out of mental blocks.  

True during pandemic opportunities for cricket were very few and far between. But these cannot be acceptable excuses for leading players and promising youngsters failing matches after matches. Something is very wrong with the psyche of the batsmen. Bowlers off course exploited the situation admirably.

The best prepared well-balanced team Gazi Group Chattogram proved head and shoulder above the rest winning three of the four matches convincingly. Only the tournament dark horse Minister Group Rajashahi fought tooth and nail in the last match going down fighting by 1 run. Star studded Gemcon Khulna; Fortune Group Barisal failed to live up to the reputation. BEXIMCO Dhaka was in total disarray. 

Off the established players Liton, Soumya, Tamim and Mushfique looked OK. But others including super star Shakib and Raid wee super flop. Some youngsters looked promising.  Mustafiz, Taskin, Rubel, Shariful, Robiul, Mehedis kept batsmen guessing all the time. The way Bangladeshi batsmen struggled playing against pace bowling triggers alarm about their performance in the upcoming several tests, ODI and Series in 2021. Lot needs to be done. 

Points Table After First Round 

After the players draw was concluded Gemcon Khulna was assessed by far the strongest team netting Shakib All Hasan and Mahmuddulah Riad along with Anamul Bijoy, Imrul Kayes. Fortune Group Barisal and Beximco Dhaka were also rated high. But after first round it appears that either Dhaka or Barisal would exit unless something dramatic happens in round two. Chattogram is the best performing team of the tournament and Rajshahi emerged as the dark horse. 

There is lot to be optimistic about flamboyant opening batsmen Liton and Soumya. I think for white ball cricket Tamim now has an assured partner in Liton with Soumya as his alternative. Sooner or later Shakib would get back to normal if he can reassess himself. Arrogance and complacency never pay. Mushifique must curb his antics. Manufacturing strokes is not always OK. Shanto looked good. Ariful played gem of an innings. Mossaddeq looked OK. Otherwise batting looked pretty ordinary. 

Mustafiz recovered pace and late swing. Taskin and Rubel raised expectation. Young Shariful as a pacer and Mehedi Hasan of Rajshahi as an all rounder looked very promising. 

Salahuddin and Sarwar Imarn tuned their teams exceptionally well. 

One of the interesting aspects was exploring whether Ashraful can make a comeback. He has to prove a lot as he looked shaky and lacked confidence. His fluency was missing.

Time is fast running out for Bangladesh. Hope second round would see some improvement. We must not blame wickets. Good players know how to adjust.   The wickets were not mine fielders. Just poor batting and mental block of batsmen led to their dismal batting. 

BDST: 1151 HRS, DEC 03, 2020

SMS