With Bangladesh staring at an exit from the Super Four stage of Asia Cup following their consecutive two defeats, the thing that came under scanner mostly was their batting. Having gone into the Asia Cup with lofty dreams, as it so often is the case with Bangladesh cricket team despite no history of success in major tournaments. They failed miserably again.
Apart from the match against Afghanistan in the group phase, Bangladesh batters so far put up abysmal performance, causing the side's defeat in one match in group phase and two matches in Super Four phase.
The inconsistency in the batting have been continuing for the last two years, leading them to three series defeats out of the last four series. To make the matters worse, they lost a home series against Afghanistan and England when at own backyard they were almost invincible since 2015. Also they lost an ODI series against low ranked Zimbabwe.
Those series defeats put a question mark if their ODI prowess has been waning of late. The question again came to the fore following their 21-run defeat to Sri Lanka as they put up yet another wretched batting display in a wicket that was bit slower but not so difficult for batting.
Earlier, against Pakistan in a batting paradise in Lahore, Bangladesh were all out scoring less than 200 and even couldn't play whole 50 overs.
Terming these defeats in the Asia Cup a reality check, he said they needed this 'reality check' ahead of the big event like World Cup.
The perceived notion that Bangladesh are a balanced ODI side now seems to be misleading. For making such a claim, the one mandatory pre-requisite is possessing the ability to excel, or at least make a significant statement, in a major tournament.
Meanwhile, Shakib, along with Mushfiqur Rahim, returned home and they will join the team in Colombo on Wednesday.
"We know the exact reason of Mushfiqur [he returned to the country to be with his wife for the birth of their second child]. Shakib also took the break for personal reasons but we are not sure about those," said Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury.
Selector Habibul Bashar said that their main challenge will be to keep the players fresh ahead of the World Cup.
"We are yet to discuss the New Zealand series. But we have to think about the workload of our pace bowlers. If we consider the hectic travel schedule of the World Cup, we must think about how we can keep some of our key players fresh ahead of the mega event," Bashar said.
