The middle order will undergo another trial in the forthcoming series against Ireland, as the Bangladesh national cricket team is set to begin their last bilateral series before the T20I World Cup scheduled in February-March next year.
The three-match T20I series starts at the Bir Sreshtho Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Stadium in Chattogram on Thursday, followed by the second and third matches at the same venue on November 29 and December 2.
Batting, especially the middle order, is still a big headache for the hosts, as it has been lacking the assurance.
Since Litton Das took over the captaincy in May, as many as nine batters have played for Bangladesh in between number four and six.
Tawhid Hridoy, Jaker Ali, and Shamim Hossain are the top three in terms of matches played in the middle order for Bangladesh in that period.
After playing an innings of 58 runs against India in the Asia Cup, Hridoy seems to have been struggling, as his last four innings yielded 52 runs at a strike rate of only 88.13.
Jaker, another mainstay of the middle order, has been going through a slump, as his average reads 11 in his last eight innings.
The wicketkeeper-batter has been facing a lot of backlash from the fans on social media too.
Shamim Hossain, on the other hand, has been overlooked for the first two matches against Ireland.
However, Jaker and Shamim were forced to play higher than their usual positions, as they were both thought to be finishers.
Now, the selectors have called up uncapped Mahidul Islam for the first two matches against Ireland.
Mahidul, who has played one Test and three ODIs, hasn鈥檛 had an impressive outing in the recently concluded Rising Stars Asia Cup, where Bangladesh finished runners-up.
He finished with a string of scores of 8, 1, and 0 in the final, after playing an unbeaten 27 off 30 balls against Afghanistan.
But Mahidul鈥檚 inclusion against Ireland, the last series in the build-up to the World Cup, has come as another desperate move from the selectors in their process of solving the middle-order problem.
Saif Hassan, who has been recently appointed as the vice-captain in the format, has injected a new momentum into the top-order batting in recent times. Litton has also been in good touch.
But the middle order will have to click in the series if Bangladesh want to bounce back from their 3-0 clean sweep against the West Indies.
