Bangladesh have little time to regroup after their dismal performance in the third and final ODI of the series on Tuesday at the Pallekele International Stadium, as they begin the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka at the same venue today.
The match is scheduled to begin at 7:30pm Bangladesh Standard Time, and T Sports will telecast it live.聽
Going into the last match with the series on the line, Bangladesh鈥檚 batting plunged while chasing 285 as they lost the match by 99 runs.聽
Batting has been a significant weakness for the Tigers across all formats for quite some time now. The ODI series wasn鈥檛 exceptional either.聽
They failed to bat out the allotted 50 overs in each of the three games while collapsing shockingly in the first ODI when they lost seven wickets for just five runs.聽
In the final ODI, they didn鈥檛 seem to have any control while chasing 285.聽
The nature of the modern-day game is such that they come thick and fast, which offers little time for Bangladesh to recover from the heavy loss and shift focus towards the T20s.聽
Liton Das, however, said that it wouldn鈥檛 be much of a problem for them.聽
鈥楾20 is a different format. Tests are different. ODIs are different. We all know how to play T20 cricket, and that鈥檚 what I will focus on,鈥� Liton said ahead of the first match.聽
鈥楢s a professional player, these phases will come, and you have to adjust. When you play in the BPL, you play back-to-back games, so I don鈥檛 think it will have an effect,鈥� he added.聽
Bangladesh are set to begin the T20I series with five consecutive defeats in the format as they lost both series to the UAE and Pakistan.聽
They will have a new captain in Liton Das in the format, but that鈥檇 add little breath of fresh air into the fold, as the wicketkeeper-batter has been struggling with his batting forms.聽
Liton had been brought back to the ODI team but was dropped after the first match as the T20 captain spent the last two matches carrying drinks.聽
In terms of fresh faces, only Mahedi Hasan, Shoriful Islam, and Mohammad Saifuddin in the T20 squad were not part of the ODI set-up.聽
Mahedi is a regular face in the format, while Shoriful and Saifuddin are making a comeback.聽
But as far as the batting is concerned, Bangladesh don鈥檛 have many elements to reshuffle, as they look almost the same as the ODI.聽
Mohammad Naim has been there for the ODI series but has remained as a backup opener and hasn鈥檛 featured in any game.聽
Liton might come into his usual top-order position after batting at four in the only ODI he played.聽
Rishad Hossain, Saifuddin, and Mahedi could add some depth to the batting if they were to be considered in the first eleven.聽
Bowling in the T20 format hasn鈥檛 been top-notch in recent times either. They failed to score, like, 205 and 196 in their last five games.聽
However, the return of Taskin Ahmed in the format might boost them a bit. But the form of Mustafizur Rahman has been a concern, as the left-arm pacer managed to take just one wicket across three ODIs.聽
Liton and Bangladesh have an upheaval challenge ahead and have little time. They need something special to turn things around.
