It was 2021, the T20 World Cup year. A year in which Bangladesh cricket had achieved two of the most remarkable series-victories in the team’s T20I history. Bangladesh had beaten Australia in the T20I series by 4-1, and New Zealand by 3-2, with all ten matches of the two 5-match T20I series being played at Mirpur. The common factor in these matches was an unusually spin-favouring pitch with very inconsistent bounce.
The Bangladesh spinners, especially Nasum Ahmed, and the pacer Mustafizur Rahman made the best use of these conditions. However, the batters stuck to their defensive batting approach in both the series, and this was not dealt with like a problem back then. For example, in both these series, Mahmudullah scored 91 runs and 120 runs with a strike rate of 96.81 and 92.31 respectively, and ended up being on the winning side. Going into the T20 World Cup later that year, Bangladesh had a big reality check.
To start with, they had lost to Scotland, an opposition the tiger fans thought of as one to win against easily after having defeated the likes of Australia and New Zealand. In that game, the highest scorer of Scotland, Chris Greaves scored 45 off 28 deliveries with a strike rate of 160.71, taking the team total to 140/9. However, Bangladesh’s highest run-scorer, Mushfiqur Rahim’s strike rate was just 105.56, as he scored 38 from 36 balls. Shakib Al Hasan’s 20 from 28 and captain Mahmudullah’s 23 off 21 were horrible as well.
A similar scenario was seen in the matches against Sri Lanka and West Indies as well. In the West Indies game, Mustafizur Rahman, the death over specialist conceded 19 runs in the 20th over taking the Windies total to 142. While he could have relied on his cutters and slower bowling on good length, which he does these days, he went for yorkers, ended up being too full, and in some cases, too short and simple, while trying to bowl bouncers.
Fast forward to 2025, Bangladesh have defeated Pakistan by 2-1 at a home series. While the pitches at Mirpur were not as bad as the ones in 2021 against Australia and New Zealand, they were not sporting or ideal pitches either. With just over one month left for the Asia Cup, Bangladesh did not go forward with pitches they should be expecting in the continental event in the first two games. In the third game, however, a more sporting pitch was offered, and Bangladesh struggled big time, although the struggle was fueled by the five changes they made in the playing XI as well.
The Bangladesh captain, Litton Kumer Das also appreciated the third T20I’s pitch, criticizing the ones in the first two.
He said, “No, this was a good wicket. It was much better than the ones we played on in the first two matches. It was a batting-friendly wicket. Our bowling unit did really well. As captain, I felt 180 was a chaseable total. But our batting unit couldn’t play a calculated game.”
“Just a few days ago, I played the World Cup in Saint Vincent on similar wickets. Whether it was the series or the World Cup, even 130 or 140 felt like a big score. That’s how cricket is—some days are like this. As players, our job is to adapt and play. In the first two matches, we managed to do that, and they didn’t. Today, we couldn’t, and they played well.”
“Of course, playing on such wickets will definitely help. I believe it will help both in batting and bowling. As cricketers, our job is to adjust to conditions. I think we did that well in the first two games. We played good cricket on those days, and they struggled. Today, we struggled, and Pakistan played good cricket.”
The big question is that if the Bangladesh team fails on sporting pitches and keeps dominating on the spin-friendly ones, is another reality check like that in 2021 waiting for them?