A challenging journey awaiting Bangladesh at the 2015 ICC World Cup

Bangladesh completed a 5-0 whitewash over Zimbabwe in the ODI series

First of all, congratulations to the Bangladesh cricket team for such an emphatic win against Zimbabwe in both the Test series and the one-day series. Their dominating performances recently have made up for all the frustrations regarding the Tigers throughout the year. After losing 22 matches out of 27 across all formats till mid-September, such a performance has certainly reinstalled the lost confidence not just in the team but also among the fans.

But one must not forget about the poor state of Zimbabwe cricket, and time and again, their lack of experience showed up. To Bangladesh’s credit, they have been able to capitalize on the weaknesses of Zimbabwe smartly.

Th Bangladesh bowlers, especially the spinners, were instrumental in thrashing Zimbabwe, but it’s hard to ignore the struggle of the Bangladeshi batsmen, with them losing a couple of quick wickets almost every time, and how they were found wanting against Tinashe Panyangara’s sharp pace and testing short-pitched bowling on placid tracks.

Even on batting-friendly tracks, the shakiness of the batsmen against a less competent pace attack was quite alarming as Bangladesh’s next mission will be the ICC World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand, where the conditions are hostile for the teams from the subcontinent.

The Tigers will face a tough challenge Down Under as they are not accustomed to playing in such conditions. They last toured Australia way back in 2008 and New Zealand in 2010. Except a few, a majority of the players have no idea about what playing in Australia and New Zealand means.

Neither in the batting nor in the bowling department, do Bangladesh have the players to put up a good show in Australia and New Zealand. Yes, there is a Shakib Al Hasan, but only one man can’t be relied upon to win every match.

Technically, Bangladesh batsmen lack an immaculate defence and are not very good back foot players. The batsmen lose their mojo whenever they are out of their comfort zone. Then, relying only on finger spinners can never fetch success as the hard and bouncy tracks in Australia are not helpful for off-spinners.

Leg-spinners, on the contrary, have always been productive Down Under, as a result of which Jubair Hossain is the new hope, but he is still too young to reap rich rewards on the biggest stage of them all.

Moreover, in Australia and New Zealand, medium-fast bowling can hardly pose a threat. A team needs a pace bowler who has the ability to bowl back of a length around the off-stump with sharp pace and deliver yorkers in the death overs consistently.

It was expected that the Bangladesh hierarchy would prepare pace-friendly tracks during the one-day series against Zimbabwe which would have helped the players a lot.

As a matter of fact, Bangladesh have never planned for the World Cup in an appropriate manner. Preparing seaming and bouncy tracks in domestic cricket or at least in one or two international matches has never been given sufficient importance. Moreover, sending the junior teams to Australia and New Zealand was never initiated. Such tours would have been a big learning curve for the Tigers.

Time is short and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has plenty of work to do. They could possibly look at appointing someone like Aminul Islam as a consultant, who has a very good idea about Australian conditions, in the lead-up to the World Cup.

The current coach Chandika Hathurusingha is undoubtedly a very competent one, but he has not had enough time to organize his men well. With just a couple of months left for the quadrennial event, whether he can prepare his team well enough for Bangladesh to at least compete remains a moot question.