What went wrong in Chandika’s planning?
Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha was expected to erect a plan that would streamline a path for the Tigers to reach their dream semifinal in the ongoing ICC World Cup when he was reappointed to the helm for a second time in January.
But with the Tigers, led by Shakib Al Hasan, losing their fifth successive match of the tournament on Saturday against the Netherlands -- the only non-Test playing country at the tournament—that top-four dream has indeed come to a premature end.
With only one win in the bag, Shakib agreed following their 87-run humiliation that it was indeed Bangladesh's worst World Cup campaign.
In the coaching scheme of things, however, things look similarly bleak, with Hathurusingha apparently running low on ideas. In recent contests, his answer to variable scenarios in games, specifically in the faltering batting department has been moving Mehedi Hasan Miraz up the order. Apart from the match against South Africa when Miraz batted at seven --a somewhat familiar position other than batting at eight—the right-handed batter came out to bat at one down on three occasions and also has had the experience of batting at four and five, all in one tournament.
Now what this has done is unsettled the likes of Towhid Hridoy and Najmul Hossain Shanto, with the former eventually losing his place in the side.
While Miraz's promotion in the Afghanistan match made sense as he reads mystery spin the best in the line-up, overdoing it in the other games had little to back it.
According to media reports, Hathurusingha's sacking as head coach of Sri Lanka in 2019 had stemmed from similar issues.
With Bangladesh cricket going through an off-field fiasco centring Shakib and former skipper Tamim Iqbal partly due to decisions relating to on-field tactics, the finger can be pointed at the Lankan coach for failing to keep situations in check as these situations resulted in affecting the team's frame of mind heading into the World Cup, a case that Shakib himself agreed to.
As things stand, it seems that the Bangladesh team management can learn a lot from their superiorcounterparts, especially in cricketing terms and how they deal with and manage setbacks relating to the team.
Five-time world champions Australia had lost Travis Head in September when he fractured his left hand right before the mega-event but the Aussies had a clear plan, Plan B it may seem, which saw them play Mitchell Marsh as an opener. After Head was cleared for action, the left-handed batter was slotted right in at the top of the order, moving Marsh down to three.
It is, however, easier to make adjustments when there is trust in the player pool and the reinforcements a team can bring in.
In Bangladesh's case, a sorry state looms as the players have maintained their tradition of losing form and then looking out of sorts after coming into a World Cup. A quick fix is difficult in such scenarios and can never materialise into a sustainable solution without proper planning.
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