Bangladesh top-order’s struggle to score runs and provide a blistering start continued as the Tigers lost early wickets yet again in the first powerplay and had to absorb the pressure initially.
Bangladesh have been searching for a fixed opening pair in white-ball cricket for the last few years and that search is still ongoing.
Opener Liton Das’ poor form with the bat forced them to try him at No 3 and the alternate option Soumya Sarkar also failed to spark, resulting in him getting dropped from the playing XI.
Due to this situation, the Tigers think tank deployed skipper Nazmul Hossain Shanto at the opening position instead of his customary No 3 spot where he scored good amount of runs in the last one and a half years.
But all these shuffles at the top still did not turn the tables for the Tigers and yet again it was a disappointing start as they lost both Shanto and Liton early in the innings.
The score after the first two overs was 5/1, and 23/2 inside four overs, against a decent bowling attack like the Netherlands.
Truth be told, it was another horrible start.
Although the Dutch skipper Scott Edwards elected to bowl first after few passing showers at Arnos Vale Stadium in Saint Vincent, the wicket looked a solid surface to bat on.
Both the dismissals of Shanto and Liton were kind of like playing a false shot.
They gave away their wickets as opposed to receiving unplayable deliveries or due to any kind of bite from the pitch.
Shanto has garnered just 216 runs in 13 innings in 2024 so far at an average of only 18.
But perhaps the most disappointing part of his batting is his strike rate, which is just 94.73.
And just to mention, Bangladesh played five Twenty20 Internationals against Zimbabwe and three against the USA among those 13 innings this year.
Shanto (one off three) had a chance to rediscover his touch against the Dutch but he came up short again big time.
More frustratingly, he was dismissed while trying to play a reverse sweep only to get caught at slip against Dutch spinner Aryan Dutt.
Meanwhile, Liton’s off-form prior to the T20 World Cup was the talk of the cricket-crazy country.
The stylish right-hander showed glimpses of hope of returning to his best when he played a crucial and patient innings of 36 which helped Bangladesh edge past Sri Lanka in an important tie that kickstarted the T20 World Cup with a much-needed win.
Liton tried to clear the fence with a sweep shot but was unable to middle the ball with his willow and the slight top edge ballooned towards deep midwicket region.
The Netherlands’ fielder Sybrand Engelbrecht ran from deep square leg and took a brilliant double handed catch close to the boundary to get rid of Liton, but that shot was also a poor execution from the right-handed batter.
It seems like the same old story for the Tigers time and again as the search for a consistent and performing top-order and explosive powerplay in T20Is goes on.