Bangladesh seek batting revival to stay alive in ODI series

Bangla Press Desk:   After a heavy dose of T20I cricket, Bangladesh returned to ODI action against Afghanistan—three months after their last outing in the format against Sri Lanka—but the comeback at the slow and low Abu Dhabi wicket was far from memorable.

Bangladesh’s batters clearly struggled to adjust to the tempo of 50-over cricket, getting bundled out for 221 in 48.5 overs after a series of “stop-start” innings where no one managed to convert their start into a big score.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, chased the target comfortably in 47.1 overs with five wickets in hand. It marked Bangladesh’s tenth loss in their last 12 ODIs, underlining their continuing struggles in the format.

With the series on the line, Bangladesh will look to bounce back in the second match of the three-match ODI series on Saturday at the same venue, where another slow and low surface is expected to greet both sides.

Bangladesh opened with in-form debutant Saif Hassan and Tanzid Hasan in the first match. The duo got start but failed to build on them. Najmul Hossain Shanto at number three followed the same pattern, and their collective failure reduced Bangladesh to 53 for 3.

Towhid Hridoy and captain Mehedy Hasan Miraz staged a recovery through a 101-run fourth-wicket stand, but the rest of the batters fell into Rashid Khan’s web.

Miraz, Jaker Ali and Nurul Hasan were all trapped lbw by Rashid—a worrying trend that began in the T20I series against the Afghan talisman, who also reached the 200-ODI-wicket milestone in the opening match of the series.

Bangladesh’s innings collapsed dramatically, losing their last six wickets for just 46 runs, completely shifting the momentum towards Afghanistan.

The Afghan batters, in contrast, adjusted well to the demands of ODI cricket while chasing, pacing their innings intelligently from the powerplay through the middle overs.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Rahmat Shah both scored fifties, while Azmatullah Omarzai—the ICC’s ODI Player of the Year for 2024—batted brilliantly under pressure, adding a crucial 40 off 44 balls.
Beyond batting, Bangladesh can also take lessons from Afghanistan’s team composition and understanding of the conditions.

While Bangladesh went pace-heavy, Afghanistan opted for an extra spinner, dropping a batter to strengthen their spin attack—an approach that paid dividends on the sluggish surface.
Still, it’s the batting that remains the biggest concern for the Tigers.

Following the series opener, where they conceded 169 dot balls, Bangladesh will aim to significantly improve their strike rotation and reduce that number in the second game of the series.

The emphasis on this tactical shift was clear from pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib in Friday's pre-match press conference. "Our primary focus now is on rotating the strike effectively," he stated. "We are ending up playing far too many dot balls, which is a major concern for all of us. I believe that in a 50-over match, if you cannot post a competitive total, winning becomes an exceedingly difficult task."
Towhid Hridoy, who scored 56 in the first match—his third fifty in the last three ODIs—admitted that the team was well short of a competitive total in Abu Dhabi.

“I think we were about 40 to 50 runs short. If we could have achieved that, the scenario of the game would have been different. It wasn't an easy wicket; it offered help to the bowlers. The bowlers bowled well enough. From a batting point of view, I believe we fell 50 runs short,” Hridoy said after the match.

“We want to focus on the next match. If we can do something good there, we can win the next two back-to-back matches,” Hridoy added, looking ahead to the second ODI.

BP/TD