Will Bangladesh openers finally open up?

While batting as a whole has been a big concern for Bangladesh in white-ball cricket recently, it is the opening conundrum that has bugged the Tigers most in the ongoing T20 World Cup. 

One simple stat is enough to portray how abysmal the openers' showing has been -- Bangladesh are yet to see their opening stand hit double figures in the T20 mega event.

In the five games played so far, a nine-run opening stand between Tanzid Tamim and Najmul Hossain Shanto against South Africa in New York has been the highest opening partnership for the Tigers in the USA and the West Indies. The Tigers saw their first wicket fall without any runs on the board twice, against Nepal in the group stage and Australia in Super Eight, while the opening pair could amount to one and three against Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, respectively. 

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The highest amount of time spent by the Tigers' openers together in a game was also during the South Africa game when the opening pair of Tanzid and Shanto survived for a grand total of two overs. 

Bangladesh have also used three different opening pairs -- the Tanzid-Soumya pair playing one match while the remaining four games were divided evenly between the Tanzid-Shanto and the Tanzid-Liton Das pairs. Tanzid has been the only constant at the top of the order, but despite playing all five of the Tigers' World Cup contests, a 26-ball 35 against the Netherlands is all that the youngster has to show.

Tanzid's two ducks -- a nonsensical golden one against Nepal and a three-ball zero against the Aussies -- and scores of just three (against Sri Lanka) and nine (against South Africa) might have the Bangladesh team management intrigued to give Soumya Sarkar another go after dropping him from the squad following the opening game against Sri Lanka. 

It is not that Soumya has done anything exceptional -- he was dismissed for a two-ball naught against the Lankans -- but such is the Tigers' plight that it usually does not need batters to perform their way into the eleven as others make way for them with poorer display. 

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Reserved approach misfires against Aussies

Moreover, Bangladesh do not have any other option in the squad other than Soumya if they are to replace anyone at the top of the order.  

Bangladesh batters' reserved approach against Australia in their first Super Eight fixture did not benefit the Tigers in any way as they were restricted to just 140 for eight in a game where the Aussies cruised along till rain interrupted and saw the game decided by DLS in favour of the 2021 World Champions. 

If there was any lesson for Bangladesh in that 28-run loss to Australia at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua -- also the venue for today's crucial Super Eight game against India -- it was that they would need a much more refined and aggressive approach from the batters, especially the openers, in order to have any shot at taking down Rohit Sharma's side.