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Why were Bangladesh so poor in the T20 World Cup? | A look at why Bangladesh were so bad in the 2021 T20 World Cup, where they lost all Super 12 games

Bangladesh’s abysmal campaign came to an end after they lost their fifth and final Super-12 match of the 2021 T20 World Cup against Australia.

The Bangladesh team has emerged as one of the most improved teams and their recent success and odd moments of glory like a quarter-final finish in the 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia or a close runners-up finish in the 2012 Asia Cup suggests the same. But, despite all this, consistency and a white-ball title still eludes them.

Bangladesh were sixth in the ICC’s men’s T20I rankings heading into the World Cup and came to the UAE on the back of series wins against New Zealand (3-2) and Australia (4-1). But those achievements owed much to familiar home conditions.

Unlike the previous six editions of the T20 World Cup, they were not labelled as underdogs by anyone before the start of the silverware tournament.  This time they had the chance to defy the odds, but as soon as they started with the Super 12 league games they fell apart as a team and ended up losing all their Super 12 games which led to their early exit from the 20-over tournament.

The beginning of the end for Bangladesh started after they lost their first match of the first round against the 14th ranked Scotland team at Al Amerat ground in Muscat. However, they pulled themselves up after claiming wins against Oman and Papua New Guinea just before the start of the Super 12’s. They came under scathing criticism after finishing bottom of their group, skittled out twice for less than 100 in their last two league games.

Here in this article, we discover the reasons behind Bangladesh’s horrid campaign.

Bangladesh failed to adapt in UAE

Bangladesh registered historic series wins against Australia and New Zealand at home. The slow spinning conditions in Dhaka for both series were heavily criticised by many around the globe.

While the Bangla Tigers expected similar sort of conditions in UAE, it didn’t exactly work out according to their plans. The makeup of the Bangladesh squad was more about their spin bowling options after their success against depleted Australia and New Zealand. This overreliance on the pitches and the same crop of bowlers really affected Bangladesh’s campaign. It was more about their one-dimensional attack rather than fielding an all-round attack in certain conditions. The game against South Africa on a seaming Abu Dhabi track must have raised questions in the selectors’ minds. More than the bowlers, Bangladesh batters failed to adapt to the conditions in the UAE, and the lack of application from the batting group made life difficult for skipper Mahmudullah.

Batting was never going to be Bangladesh’s strong suit heading into the multi-nation tournament without the ever-reliable Tamim Iqbal. Mahmudullah’s side wasn’t good enough with the bat, they showed signs of struggle right from the start of the tournament. In the batting department, there were loopholes and those holes were left exposed when they played the Super 12 games.  Bangladesh’s overall scoring rate was 6.4 (The third-worst in the competition after Namibia and Scotland).

Opening conundrum in Tamim’s absence

In Tamim’s absence, it was a perfect opportunity for Mohammad Naim and Liton Das to make a name for themselves on the big stage. Unfortunately for Bangladesh, it didn’t happen.

Bangladesh suffered from the bad habit of losing early wickets, which meant that their average opening partnership was only 14.62 (the fourth worst in the competition). Naim was the best Bangladeshi batsman in the tournament, however, he didn’t get any share of support from his batting partners – Liton Das & Soumya Sarkar. Liton Das played all the matches as an opener, except for one game against the West Indies, but the right-hander could not manage to score enough (133 runs in eight matches with a 16.62 average and 94.32 strike rate). Sarkar played just one match as an opener and he was dropped later while Mohammad Naim (174 off seven games with 24.85 average and 110.82 strike rate) scored two fifties but his strike rate was not up to the demand of the format.

Poor with the bat in the powerplay overs

In none of the matches did the Bangladesh top-order manage to record a 50-plus runs stand in the powerplay. They lost regular wickets in almost every game within the powerplay, which put them on the back foot from the very beginning. The run rate was also not up to standard, which affected the batting performance in the latter part.

Against Sri Lanka, England, West Indies, and South Africa, Bangladesh lost 1, 3, 2, and 3 wickets respectively inside the Powerplay. Moreover, in the powerplay overs, the Bangladesh openers’ average opening partnership was 13.44 in the eight matches while the strike rate was well below 100 (84.03).

Fielding woes

Fielding was substandard by the Bangladeshi fielders in the silverware event. Two dropped catches against Sri Lanka in the first game of the Super 12 cost Bangladesh the game. Few other examples such as Afif Hossain dropping Jason Holder in the next game preceded the Caribbean allrounder smashing two sixes in the last over which proved to be vital in the end as Bangladesh lost the game by just three runs. Soumya missing Aaron Finch’s catch at the boundary in the last league game summed up the Tigers’ whole tournament as well.

Mustafizur Rahman failed to perform on the big stage

Mustafizur Rahman has been one of the most lethal bowlers in the shortest version of the game and a lot was expected from him in the T20 World Cup 2021. However, the left-armer had an average tournament with only eight wickets from seven matches at an economy rate of 9.25.

Six of those eight wickets came in the first two games of the qualifiers against Scotland and Oman. In the Super 12, he took only two wickets from five matches, remaining wicketless in four games. The economy rate was on the higher side too as he gave away runs at the rate of 9.25 which is unusual for a bowler like Mustafizur. It was an unforgettable tournament for Bangladesh’s leading pacer and that was reflected in the team’s downfall in the 20-over tournament.

Not enough sixes

T20 is a kind of format which demands big hits and the Bangla Tigers lacked six-hitting skills in the Super 12 stage of the tournament. Their batters weren’t proactive enough to take risks and put pressure on the opposition bowlers. In the eight games, Bangladesh hit 25 sixes in total, but that only tells the half story as 18 of the 25 sixes came in the qualifying round while only seven sixes were hit in the five Super 12 matches.

Bangladesh recorded the lowest number of sixes hit in the Super 12 stage of the tournament. Even Namibia and Scotland were ahead of them with 16 and 13 sixes respectively in the Super 12 games.

Bangladesh’s 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup campaign was nothing short of a disaster for them, having lost all five games in the Super 12s stage. It was their most disappointing ICC event in recent memory. Yes, one can say injuries to Mohammad Saifuddin, Shakib Al Hasan, and Tamim’s unavailability certainly affected their campaign to some extent but no one can justify the team’s clean sweep in the competition.

Written by Vaibhav Tripathi. Follow Vaibhav on Twitter today.