Tigers keep facing the cons of left-right combination

From Chandika Hathurusingha to Steve Rhodes and now Russell Domingo, all the coaches in charge of Bangladesh team over the past five to six years seemed to have taken the conservative approach of sticking to the left and right-hand combination, regardless of the condition and game situation.

Whether it is the selection process of picking the best playing eleven or the opening pair, or the bowling changes from the captain — the left and right-hand combination is an evident part of the Tigers' game plan which however, often backfires.

When it comes to the team selection, especially the opening pair, a huge question mark persists as the selectors had shuffled different players for the spot. Interestingly, the left-handed Naim Sheikh, who has played all the 16 matches this year ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in mind was dropped in the first qualifier game despite being the most consistent batsman in the shortest format and was replaced by another lefty Soumya Sarkar against Scotland after considering his two thirty-plus knocks in the warm-up matches.

The obvious reason behind the decision was to keep the left and right combination intact with Liton Das being the right-handed opener on the other end despite the fact that he has failed to perform as consistently as Naim.

The Tigers' think-tank could only stick to their decision for one game after Bangladesh went on to face a shocking six-run defeat to Scotland in which Soumya failed to make an impact and was replaced by Naim in the next game against Oman.

Since then Naim went on to smash a couple of fifties against Oman and Sri Lanka and whereas Liton, despite the scores of 15, 6, 10, 5, 6 and 29 in his last six games, was given the opportunity over Soumya against Sri Lanka in which the right-hander scored 16 runs.

Odd team selections aside, which also consists of three specialist wicket-keepers involving Liton, Nurul Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, conservatism has also tangled the thought process of the captains, regardless of the formats, where skipper Mahmudullah Riyad has been no exception.

During Bangladesh's five-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in the opening Super 12 game on Sunday, there were occasions where Mahmudullah could have brought Shakib Al Hasan before Sri Lanka started cruising towards the target of 172 runs after Shakib had shifted the balance of the game in Tigers' favour by picking up two wickets in the ninth over of the innings

Despite Shakib having two overs from his quota of four overs when Bangladesh needed to go for the kill, Mahmudullah took the conservative route of operating right-handed off-spinners from both ends with two left-handers Charith Asalanka and Bhanuka Rajapaksa at the crease.

Mahmudullah had opted to introduce himself in that situation where he went on to concede 21 runs from his two overs.

By the time Shakib came to bowl his third over in the 17th over of the innings, the Lankans already had the game in their control and the champion left-arm spinner ended up finishing the game with an over left from his quota.

Obviously, strategies may vary with respect to the given match scenarios but if the Tigers think-tank keeps falling back to the rigid, premeditated approach, things will continue to further tangle in a messy web of confusion in the upcoming days and beyond.