Tigers out to avoid T20 whitewash

DHAKA —After being thrashed in the first two matches, Bangladesh are desperate to bounce back in to the winning way in a bid to restore some pride as they take on Pakistan in the third and final T20 International tomorrow (Monday) at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

The match which starts at 2 pm will be aired live on Gazi TV and T Sports.

The Tigers put up a fight in the first T20 before losing the game by four wickets but they were no match for Pakistan in the second game as the visitors crushed them by eight wickets, thanks to a 51 ball-57 not out from Fakhar Zaman.

If they continue the losing trend, it will be the first time for Bangladesh to taste a whitewash on home soil in a series with more than one match in this format.

The defeat was Bangladesh seventh in a row and eighth in the last 10 matches that they played in just one month. It was however the third longest defeat streak of Bangladesh in this format with the longest streak remaining 12 from 2007-2010. The second longest is eight defeats from 2016-2017. It means if they can’t avoid the whitewash, they will record joint second longest losing streak.

Bangladesh so far played 122 matches, winning 43 in contrast to losing 77 while two matches fetched no result.

What ailed Bangladesh was their poor batting which started during the home series against Australia and New Zealand ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup. Bangladesh though won those two series to register their maiden T20 series victory over Australia and New Zealand, their batting caused a headache.

They continued their wretched batting in the World Cup too and experienced a shock defeat to Scotland.  However they recovered well to beat Oman and Papua New Guinea and moved to Super 12s, largely due to the bowling performance.

They lost all of the matches in Super 12s, paying the price of their shoddy batting effort.

At the home track, they could put up 127-7 and 108-7 against Pakistan in the last two matches and if this continued, a whitewash at home for the first time in a series more than one matches is confirmed.

Sensing this fate, Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad insisted that the batting unit must deliver to end that losing streak.

“I think in the last five-six months, our bowling unit has been outstanding, both pace and spin department. It's the batting unit that must deliver,” he said after his side lost the second T20 against Pakistan to concede the series.

Pakistan now won four straight matches against Bangladesh in this format and took the winning tally to 12 in overall 14 encounters between the two sides.

Despite losing the Twenty20 World Cup semifinal to eventual champions Australia, Babar earlier said, the performance in the global event gave them momentum and they are keen to carry it in Bangladesh.

In the first two matches, his side showed that they carried the momentum really well. Now Babar expected to wrap it up with another victory.

“The team effort continues..I am happy with the way the boys carried forward the momentum," said Babar Azam. "We bowled well in the middle overs, finished it off well. Hopefully we’ll carry it.”

Bangladesh fielded an unchanged side in the last two matches but they might bring up some changes for the last match. With Mustafizur facing injury scare, Bangladesh are unlikely to field him in the third game.

Bangladesh’s T20 squad: Mahmudullah Riyad (captain), Naim Sheikh, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shake Mahedi Hasan, Aminul Islam Biplob, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Shamim Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Shohidul Islam, Akbar Ali.BSS