Focus on range-hitting, batting depth in World Cup tune-up

Bangladesh will take on Zimbabwe at Chattogram's Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the first of five T20Is today, hoping to tick all the right boxes in terms of preparations for the upcoming T20 World Cup in June.

Yesterday, the middle and lower-middle-order batters, in particular, were going for range-hitting at the practice session, where Mahmudullah Riyad's strokeplay caught the attention of the media.

It was an optional session for the Tigers and skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto had only come for the press conference. Two pacers, Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Mohammad Saifuddin, along with spinner Tanvir Islam and Rishad Hossain attended the session. Alongside Mahmudullah, Jaker Ali and Afif Hossain, too, batted at the nets while Soumya Sarkar, outside the 15-member squad, worked on fitness.

Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Mahmudullah took one of Afif's bat to the session. He pointed to the shorter handle of the bat, to which Afif said, "Bhai, this bat is small. I don't use it in matches." The veteran, however, did not have any problem middling his big shots.

Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Batting depth would be of importance heading to the World Cup and Tigers were furnishing options to that end. Shanto later said at the press conference that a better depth in middle or lower-middle-order did not mean that batters at the top were going to play more freely.

The Bangladesh captain argued that players have the freedom to interpret what the side require according to scenarios.

"No, it's not like we [top-order] will be batting freely because of that. Every player has the freedom and it doesn't matter who will bat at the latter part of the innings. Batters will bat according to their roles, and everyone has that freedom to bat with," Shanto said yesterday.

Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Range-hitting remains important to find big shots when needed. Rishad, in particular, suffered from batters' aggression but Mushtaq Ahmed, the newly appointed spin coach, was heard encouraging the leg-spinner, saying, "This things will happen, no matter."

Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Bangladesh's T20 batting suffers in all three stages: the Powerplay, middle-overs, and the death overs. Shanto also suggested that some boundaries late on are helpful. The T20 approach had seen some changes with top-order keener on taking advantage of field restrictions.

The Tigers were keeping that option open for the World Cup, keeping in mind injury concerns. "Everyone is in a good state. Soumya is not fully fit among top-order batters, but he is recovering well. [Parvez Hossain] Emon is there and there are a few options outside [the squad] like Naim Sheikh.

"Anyone can have an injury although we don't want that. We are preparing in a way so that if someone is required, they can be called upon," Shanto said.

Shanto was expecting high-scoring matches in Chattogram, where the first three T20Is will be held, and the practice session before the start of the series -- a crucial one for World Cup preparations -- gave impressions of the approach they were targeting.