The biggest tournament of International Cricket’s smallest version, the T20 World Cup is knocking at the door, and cricketing nations are preparing hard for success in the gala event.
Bangladesh are also taking all sorts of preparation ahead of the global show but one of the major concerns is the slot of opening batters.
The 2021 T20 World Cup is set to take place in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from October 17 to November 14 and all the participating teams must submit their 15-member squad before September 10.
Bangladesh will play the qualifying round in Oman to qualify for the Super 12 stage.
It is expected at least three openers will feature in the Bangladesh squad, but as many as four openers -Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim - are in contention.
Tamim, one of the most experienced and prolific scorers for Bangladesh in all three formats, has not played T20 cricket for the national team this year.
Bangladesh have played 11 T20Is this year and five more will be played against the touring New Zealand team at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium starting next week.
Tamim missed three matches against the Kiwis (away) due to personal reasons, and missed three against Zimbabwe (away), as well as five against Australia (home) due to injury.
He will miss the next five matches against New Zealand as he is recovering from his injury, and racing to become fully fit before the T20 World Cup.
Even without playing the last 11 T20Is and missing the next five, Tamim has been considered as the No 1 opener for the Tigers in the T20 World Cup according to coach, captain, selection panel and BCB higher ups.
The think tank of the team is emphasizing on Tamim’s experience and eager to rope him in if he may recover from injuries in time.
Liton also missed three matches against Zimbabwe away (played the first one but did not bat due to injury) and five against Australia home recently.
And before Zimbabwe series, his latest outings in T20Is with the bat were very much shaky as he scored only 10 runs from three innings against New Zealand in March.
So, the onus will be upon him to score some runs and strengthen his claims to be selected in the T20 World Cup squad.
Soumya's performance in recent T20Is portrays one of the finest glimpses of his whole career.
It’s like an old story, however.
The swashbuckling opener seems solid in a few matches and then suddenly looks clueless in the next few games.
Inconsistency is always a big hindrance in the career of the flamboyant batsman and that creates a big doubt while mulling about including him in the squad for the big event.
Against New Zealand, Soumya scored a 51-run innings off 27 balls in Napier batting at No 3 back in March.
Later in Zimbabwe, he scored two fifties during the three-match series and was adjudged man of the series.
But against Australia at home, he was really struggling with the bat at the opening.
The pitch was difficult to bat on, but a player like Soumya (who has been playing in these kind of home surfaces for years) scoring just 12 runs off 32 deliveries from four innings is not acceptable by any means.
So, Soumya will be under scrutiny in the coming five-match series against the Kiwis.
Coming to Naim, technically he is now the fourth-choice opener for the T20 World Cup.
Naim’s career started with great promise as he scored 26, 36 and 81 against India away in 2019.
So far, the left-hander scored 465 runs from 17 innings till date with an average of 29.06.
His average is highest, among the four openers in the discussion, but the main problem with his batting is his strike rate (111.24 in 17 innings) and failure to rotate strike when it requires.
He has the lowest strike rate among these four openers (Tamim 116.96, Soumya 123.6, Liton 134.02) and often fails to score quick singles, an important component against strong bowling units.
Naim is slightly more consistent compared to Soumya, but the former's poor strike rate may weaken his case.
Naim scored 91 runs in the five-match series against the Aussies at home on difficult pitches, but it must be mentioned that he has scored only five boundaries and three sixes altogether facing 103 deliveries, playing mostly of them in power play.
So, if Naim gets the opportunity ahead of the other two in this series, then he must score some quick runs to be considered for the T20 World Cup.
So opening spots are up for grabs.
It seems two from these three players (Liton, Somya and Naim) will be picked for the T20 World Cup if Tamim gets fit.
The five-match series against the second-string New Zealand will be played on September 1, 3, 5 ,8 and 10 and the last date of squad submission is September 10.
So, it will be interesting to see how these openers respond with an eye on the T20 World Cup.
