Bangladesh’s batting woes have persisted throughout their Zimbabwe tour, from the one-off Test to the ODI series and the opening T20I.
After failing to chase 171 in the series opener, Bangladesh were bowled out for 138 to suffer a 32-run defeat at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, on Wednesday.
When the two sides meet again at the same venue today, the visitors will be desperate to bounce back and keep the three-match series alive. A defeat would hand Zimbabwe their first T20I series win over Bangladesh since 2022.
Zimbabwe’s pace duo of Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani once again proved too hot to handle in the opening game, sharing eight wickets with four apiece. Their dominance has not been limited to the T20Is, having troubled Bangladesh throughout the Test and ODI legs of the tour.
Bangladesh senior assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin admitted his batters must come up with a better plan against the two fast bowlers.
“I think we’ve struggled against Ngarava and Muzarabani since the Test and ODI series. Throughout the tour, they’ve been the difference-makers. We need to come up with a better plan for how to handle them,” Salahuddin said after the defeat.
Bangladesh have now lost five consecutive T20Is since their home series against New Zealand. Salahuddin believes the biggest concern is the team’s inability to learn from repeated mistakes.
“We go into every match with the intention of winning. But our batters need to be more tactical against certain bowlers. If we can do that, we will perform better,” he said.
“The problem is that we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. That means we’re not learning from them. We have to adapt to the conditions”, he added.
The visitors lost their first three wickets for just 34 runs before collapsing from 130 for 5 to 138 all out, losing their last five wickets for only eight runs in the first T20I.
Returning to international cricket after three years, Yasir Ali Rabbi offered the lone resistance with 54. His 52-run stand with Mahedi Hasan was Bangladesh’s only partnership of substance.
Ngarava and Muzarabani repeatedly exploited their height to extract steep bounce, with Bangladesh’s batters struggling against the short ball. Saif Hassan was cramped for room while attempting a pull off Ngarava, and Tanzid Hasan Tamim fell to a similar delivery. Muzarabani then dismissed both Yasir and Nasum Ahmed with the same tactic.
Salahuddin said Bangladesh’s priority before the second T20I is finding a way to neutralise Zimbabwe’s pace spearheads.
“Both of them are very tall bowlers, which allows them to generate extra bounce on any surface. Before the next match, our main focus should be on finding ways to counter those two because they took eight wickets between them in the first match,” he said.
