The Bangladesh national cricket team departed for the ICC Champions Trophy in the UAE on Thursday night, with a serious concern over inadequate match practice in the 50-over format.
The lack of practice has been a matter of concern for the Tigers, as they last played a match in this format was against the West Indies two months ago.
Additionally, the Tigers will need to overcome the challenge of delivering big totals, especially on the flat tracks of Pakistan, which they are not accustomed to.
All the teams participating in the tournament except Bangladesh and Afghanistan have been busy with ODIs leading up to the competition and have amassed large totals.
Pakistan just pulled off their record chase in their history when they beat South Africa by chasing 352 with six balls remaining at Karachi on Wednesday in the virtual semi-final of the Tri-Nation Series that includes New Zealand.
New Zealand, meanwhile, were already in the final as they won both group stage matches. The Kiwis scored 300-plus in both matches—one batting first while the other came chasing.
The Tri-Nation Series in Pakistan has been showing glimpses of what could be expected in the 50-over tournament. It’s true that the wickets of the ICC tournament often tend to be more sporting, yet big scores are expected.
Since the last edition of the Champions Trophy, which was held seven years back in England and Wales, the ODI format itself has been subsumed with the rise and rise of T20s and a new brand of Test cricket.
Yet, what England started with the 50-over game during their revolutionary period post-2015 World Cup, other teams have been following that template of an aggressive brand of cricket that often includes high tempo in the batting.
However, England have been failing to cope with others as their poor run continues in the format since their dismal and futile attempt at title defence in the last World Cup.
India hammered them in a recently concluded three-match series when England failed to defend 304 in the second match at Cuttack.
Since the last Champions Trophy in 2019, England and India both have scored 300 or more in an ODI innings 42 times—the joint first.
Bangladesh have managed to put up 18 of those kinds of innings, and only Afghanistan are lower on that list among the eight teams participating this time.
In their last 25 innings, Bangladesh have only managed two totals of 300 or more; on both occasions, they came second.
The latest incident was against the West Indies when they failed to defend 321.
Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto admitted that the wickets in Pakistan would produce high totals.
‘I expect that there will be 300-plus wickets in Pakistan,’ Shanto told the reporters on Wednesday. ‘We’ve to score like that if we bat first. We will also have to defend [chase] this type of score.’
Bangladesh will play their first match against India at the Dubai International Stadium on February 20. Since 2021, the teams that won there have produced 4.69 runs per over.
Shanto knows that it’s more of a moderate scoring venue. ‘In Dubai, the wicket varies from time to time. But it will be around 260-280. The numbers are difficult to predict, but the past has been telling us this,’ he said.
However, the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, where Bangladesh will play their group-stage matches against New Zealand and Pakistan, has seen 6.48 runs per over in the winning teams’ innings.
‘We will analyse how many runs we need to score or defend on that particular day,’ Shanto added to remark on how their approach would be.
But when it comes to high scoring, Bangladesh often failed in the past. So, when those two matches come, Shanto & co must be ready for some high-octane batting if they want to put on a show.
Ìý