“Some people can take it as an excuse, but it’s really a fact that we play very few matches on good pitches,” said Shanto.
With the huge cricket carnival that is the T20 World Cup 2024 approaching, cricket excitement is at its height. Teams have begun to warm up before the massive ICC event starts by playing bilateral series and warm-up matches at the designated venues. Similarly, what was supposed to be a simple warm-up series between Bangladesh and co-hosts of the Twenty20 World Cup, the United States, proved to be a forgettable affair for Najmul Hossain Shanto & Co.
Bangladesh, having lost their first two matches, struggled to establish a pattern and ultimately lost 2-1, causing one of the biggest upsets in cricket history. Following the series, 25-year-old Shanto—who was just named Bangladesh’s all-format captain—emphasized how important it was to prepare “good pitches” at home. He admitted that, despite the fact that some might view it as an excuse, Bangladesh did not have as many perfect T20 tracks as other nations had.
“We need to play on decent surfaces first and foremost. We play extremely few games on decent pitches, which some people may use as an excuse, but Shanto told AFP that this is a fact.
The claims made by Najmul Hossain Shanto are reasonable and essential, especially in light of the high-scoring matches and rapidly rising run rates that define modern cricket. Interestingly, no one player in their current 15-member T20 World Cup 2024 roster boasts a strike rate surpassing 130. Additionally, since 2010, the average first- and second-inning scores at venues in Bangladesh have been quite low, at 139 and 121, respectively. This suggests that more needs to be done to create tracks that are more conducive to batting, particularly in the context of Twenty20 Internationals.
Bangladesh has never made it to the T20 World Cup’s knockout stages.
With the T20 World Cup 2024 around the corner, another striking statistic stands out: the South Asian nation, currently ranked ninth in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings (last updated on May 14, 2024), holds the unique distinction of being the sole team to have competed in every edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup thus far without advancing past the group stage even once.
With only 99 runs in 7 innings during a lackluster showing in the recent Zimbabwe vs. USA T20I series, the southpaw would be desperate to leave his mark at the impending mega-event. His comeback would be essential to Bangladesh’s hopes of having a significant effect on the competition.
