What is hurting Bangladesh's batting?
Their failure as a batting unit in the ongoing ICC World Cup is nothing surprising considering it has been the case for quite some time now. They have lost three or more wickets inside 100 runs on nine occasions out of their last 11 ODIs.
It is certainly too early to push the panic button as they have just played three games so far in the global tournament so far, but changing the batting order in every single game is not paying dividends.
Bangladesh vice-captain Najmul Hossain, who was groomed at number three ahead of the World Cup, is currently batting at number four while Towhid Hridoy is batting at number seven despite shining at number five earlier. Bangladesh promoted MehedyHasan to number three on two occasions while in another game, they demoted him to number five.
Instead of sticking with a settled order, Bangladesh have been more inclined to experimentation. Bangladesh vice-captain Najmul Hossain on Friday said that it is better if they don't have to continue experimenting any further, but added that they are open to flexible batting positions.
"I think those who are batting in the middle-order, there is some kind of flexibility at four, five and six. But if that is not the case in that situation it helps," Najmul told reporters at the post-match press conference in Chennai on Monday.
"To be honest, you have to adapt (batting in different positions). But I think everyone should have the flexibility to bat at any place at any time. We don't have any complaints batting at different positions," he said before admitting that despite being vice-captain of the side he is not part of the decision-making part of the management.
"This (shuffling in the batting order can be explained) can be explained by the coach and the captain. The member of the batting unit knows who will bat where but the reason behind it can be explained better by the coach and the captain," he said.
"It's not that it (changing in batting order) happens all of a sudden because every batter knows it and I don't think we need to worry a lot about it. We try to bat according to the decision taken by the coach and captain," he said.
Bangladesh assistant coach Nick Pothas admitted that their batting failure is a concern as they are not clicking for quite some time, putting pressure on the lower middle-order to bail them out.
"It is black and white. When something is black and white, the numbers are there for you to see. The situation for us and have to find a solution to that," Pothas said.
"The batters are working hard to find that solution. But when you are playing against high-quality bowling attacks, you have to be on your game. There's no time and freedom to find your game. They are on you. This is a World Cup," he said while adding that he does not see any problem with this frequent changes in the batting order.
"This is modern cricket. The batters know that they have to be flexible and adaptable. The batting order is communicated a long time before. They are all dependent on our opposition and conditions. A lot of thought goes into (the batting order),'' he said.
