Bangladesh Cricket Team

 

Why were Bangladesh so poor in the T20 World Cup? | A look at why Bangladesh were so bad in the 2021 T20 World Cup, where they lost all Super 12 games

Bangladesh’s abysmal campaign came to an end after they lost their fifth and final Super-12 match of the 2021 T20 World Cup against Australia.

The Bangladesh team has emerged as one of the most improved teams and their recent success and odd moments of glory like a quarter-final finish in the 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia or a close runners-up finish in the 2012 Asia Cup suggests the same. But, despite all this, consistency and a white-ball title still eludes them.

Mustafizur Rahman failed to perform on the big stage

Mustafizur Rahman has been one of the most lethal bowlers in the shortest version of the game and a lot was expected from him in the T20 World Cup 2021. However, the left-armer had an average tournament with only eight wickets from seven matches at an economy rate of 9.25.

Six of those eight wickets came in the first two games of the qualifiers against Scotland and Oman. In the Super 12, he took only two wickets from five matches, remaining wicketless in four games. The economy rate was on the higher side too as he gave away runs at the rate of 9.25 which is unusual for a bowler like Mustafizur. It was an unforgettable tournament for Bangladesh’s leading pacer and that was reflected in the team’s downfall in the 20-over tournament.

Not enough sixes

T20 is a kind of format which demands big hits and the Bangla Tigers lacked six-hitting skills in the Super 12 stage of the tournament. Their batters weren’t proactive enough to take risks and put pressure on the opposition bowlers. In the eight games, Bangladesh hit 25 sixes in total, but that only tells the half story as 18 of the 25 sixes came in the qualifying round while only seven sixes were hit in the five Super 12 matches.

Bangladesh recorded the lowest number of sixes hit in the Super 12 stage of the tournament. Even Namibia and Scotland were ahead of them with 16 and 13 sixes respectively in the Super 12 games.