Will Tigers take responsibility with the bat?

When you are out of form, not much assistance from outside can help you along if you cannot figure out the nature of the problem. Lack of runs in their natural flow has not helped Bangladesh batters' cause heading into the T20 World Cup in USA and West Indies. Skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto had spoken of knowing their abilities, but did they show enough faith in it themselves?

"A batter scoring runs is the most important thing in building confidence. Without runs, it won't happen. Runs will support you mentally and stay in the back of the mind," Bangladesh opener Soumya Sarkar had said before the squad's departure for USA in a BCB video published on Monday.

With just a few more days before the first game against Sri Lanka on Saturday, the Tigers' batters do not have any more opportunities to score runs in warm-up games. If practice is the only option before taking the field, it is now the coaching staff's job to infuse the lost confidence.

Shakib Al Hasan's effort against India with the bat lacked conviction. It appeared that his bottom hand was producing a force that his forehand did not guide. If such problems are now not focused on by team's think tank, these will spell disaster against oppositions with faith in their abilities.

Liton Das was still trying to produce shots that were not on. He perished against India almost looking to glide an inswinger from a left-arm pacer down third man. A majority of the Bangladesh batters, in fact, fell trying to force the issue, a curious case given there was pace to work with in the wicket.

Shakib had spent time at the crease and at least tried to find his game even if it did not help the team's cause. Most of the others threw their wickets because of the inability to produce outcomes. Captain Shanto's form has been dismal while Soumya was dismissed against India like he was in automatic mode, driving at an outswinger to be caught-behind – neither feet nor hands getting close to the line.

Bangladesh batters later struggled to a point that it felt better off to just go for awkward shots and depart, so another one can play more deliveries. The individual's responsibility was missing for the majority.

Soumya, for his part, said his dreams were big. It is also something Bangladesh now need, because they were not trusting whatever ability they have.

Most of the struggling batters at the moment are aware of dot deliveries being played, not having faith that they can up the ante when they find the sweet spot of the bat. Soumya talked about pooling together their collective experience. However, each individual batter must now take responsibility for being in that side.

"Haven't done well in the past two World Cups and want to make this 2024 edition memorable," Soumya ended with this message. The idea is right but he and the others now must forget expectations and get focus back on recovering cricketing sharpness.