Bangladesh batting in the doldrums

At the end of the 20th over of the Bangladesh innings yesterday, Mushfiqur Rahim played his favourite shot against JP Duminy, slog-sweeping the off-spinner in an attempt to up the ante. But unfortunately for Mushfiqur and the thousands of fans who had braved the rains to come to the stadium, the shot only resulted in a simple catch at long-on.

That very moment perhaps best describes the kind of struggle the wicketkeeper-batsman, and Bangladesh's batting order in general, is going through. Just a few months ago, a slog-sweep from the bat of Mushfiqur was almost bound to go over the ropes. It's a shot that he often tends to use in order to relieve the pressure, and at times to keep up with the run-rate. However, things haven't been going according to plans for the Bangladesh stalwart ever since the India series.

The last two matches saw him get out against the flow of the game. There was a good partnership going on with Shakib Al Hasan at the other end yesterday as the partnership had just crossed the half-century mark. However, just like in the second T20I, Mushfiqur's sudden urge to clear the ropes led to his downfall and accentuated the collapse.

Sure enough, Mushfiqur isn't the only person to blame in this scenario. In fact Mushfiqur's bad run just goes on to show how dependent Bangladesh's middle order has been on him since the World Cup.

Issues at the top order for Bangladesh have been common in the last couple of years. Tamim Iqbal's inconsistency, Anamul Haque's lack of foot movement or Mahmudullah Riyad's lack of form are concerns that have frequently come up. However, there was always a sense of assurance whenever Mushfiqur had walked out to the middle. That assurance, at the moment though, seems to be wavering. With the top order underperforming yet again, and Mushfiqur unable to remain as consistent as has been over the last two years, Bangladesh's batting order seems to be in dire straits.

There is no doubt that there is plenty of fire in this Bangladeshi batting line-up, but unfortunately not all of the batsmen have managed to be as consistent as Mushfiqur.

Soumya Sarker, despite all his graceful shots, yesterday lost his wicket in the 20s for the sixth time in 14 matches. Tamim has seemed uneasy ever since his record-breaking performance against Pakistan in the Khulna Test, while Bangladesh's number three conundrum continues.

The strategy to use slow and low wickets against South Africa may have had a negative effect on the batsmen. They have been playing on sporting tracks ever since the World Cup and a sudden change in the nature of the wicket may be causing them some problems.

That concern has been evident especially in the approach shown by the top order batsmen. The aggressive stroke-play at the top made it seem as though the players were yearning for the kind of wickets they played on in the series' against Pakistan and India.

With two more ODIs to go, Bangladesh batsmen continue to face the odd task of re-adjusting to their slow and low home conditions.