Foreign hard-hitters finding life difficult in BPL

Although there are four overseas names in the top 10 run-getters list in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), but none of the foreigners have exactly set the tournament alight.

Rangpur Riders Pakistani batter Babar Azam, who has already left the tournament, leads the list amongst the foreigners, with 251 runs in six innings, yet his strike-rate has not even pushed 120.

From an impact perspective, among batters that have played at least six innings, only West Indies star Evin Lewis has made an impact at the top as a foreign recruit as he has scored 150 runs at a strike-rate of 166.66.

This year's tournament has often produced drab affairs as the explosive innings from marquee players, which is usually a part and parcel of T20 franchise leagues, has been missing this year.

Uncertainty about the best team combination, confusion regarding captaincy till the last moment along with the slow nature of the wickets have all played a part in the batters' conundrum.

This year, 150 has been a very defendable score and strokeplay has been difficult, admitted Chattogram Challengers' Kiwi batter Tom Bruce, who has a career T20 strike-rate of 140 but has managed only 128 this tournament.

"No, it's sort of been a bit more difficult but it is what you are faced with," Bruce said when asked if it has been easy to go out and play his shots at BPL.

He reckoned that batting longer was the key to getting to a good score.

"Obviously, I would love to be striking at higher than 120. And my career strike-rate, it's up at 140-145. So you do have to sort of manage expectations here as well but at the same time, the longer you bat, the easier it becomes and that's when you can get to scores like 150-160 which has been shown to be winning scores here," he said.

"No one's been striking at 150 consistently. So it's about managing expectations," he added.

Afghanistan's Gulbadin Naib was hitting Indian bowlers to all parts of the ground just recently but left the Durdanto Dhaka franchise without making much of an impact, same as Pakistan's Saim Ayub. Mohammad Rizwan also struggled.

Sylhet Strikers were struggling so much with their top-order, that Ireland's Harry Tector is filling in as opener. Known for big hits at the death, Tector struck 61 off 52 to contribute heavily to his side's win yesterday against Khulna Tigers but did not even like his knock.

"To be honest, I don't really like playing like that. I don't like that sort of innings. I found batting here quite hard. Generally, in this tournament, I found the wickets quite difficult. But nice to, I guess, spend a bit of time in the middle and feel the ball in the middle of the bat.

"Obviously, I've opened in the last three games. That's something I've never done in my life, not since I was like 10 years old," Tector said at the press conference yesterday.

Poor form, players coming in mid-tournament are factors that make quick adjustments all the more difficult for foreign stars.

But as the locals have failed to produce desired result, the star players from outside are having to carry the burden of playing differently to their natural game.