There is much talk about Bangladesh’s defeat to Scotland in the first match of the T20 World Cup. The defeat made Bangladesh’s path to the Super 12s tough, and they now have no way but to win in the second match against the hosts Oman.
The team management might bring a couple of changes to the playing XI in the second match which is set to take place at 8pm Bangladesh time.
The decision of overlooking Mohammad Naim in the first match was unexpected as the left-handed batters played 16 T20 matches on the trott right before the World Cup. He might be included in the second match to replace Soumya Sarkar who failed to impress with the bat in the first match.
“It was a very difficult decision, and Soumya played the first match because we had Mahmudullah (Riyad) couldn’t bowl. We didn’t have a sixth bowling option except for Afif (Hossain), and we thought if there’s a bit of dew around and the ball is difficult for the spinners to grip, we might need somebody else to bowl some seam.” Domingo said before the second match.
“Soumya was the guy that was earmarked to do that, and that’s the only reason he played yesterday. Naim has been fantastic for us, but we needed another bowling option with Mahmudullah not being able to play with his back niggles,” he added saying if Mahmudllah feels better ahead of the second match, Naim would get a chance.
The team management might give a chance to Afif to bat at a higher place. He has always been a top or middle-order batter during his U-19 cricketing days. But he is not getting that chance at the international level. Afif also proved his mettle previously as a middle-order batter.
“As you have seen in the series against Australia and New Zealand, our batting lineup particularly was pretty flexible. We often used Afif sometimes at five and sometimes at seven, sometimes (Nurul Hasan) Sohan at five, so it just depends very much on the situation and the bowlers that are bowling at the moment,” Domingo added.
At the current scenario, Bangladesh will have to win their last two matches of Round 1 in order to book a place at the Super 12s. If Bangladesh lose on Tuesday, they will have to depend on the results of other matches for a place in the next phase of the World Cup.
Source: United News of Bangladesh