When it comes to playing outside the country, especially outside the subcontinent, the Bangladeshi batters are often seen to struggle against the extra bounce and pace.
In cricket, all teams play both at home and abroad. Teams enjoy the added benefits of home conditions and struggle away. In this way, the conditions are not always favourable for the guest teams who come to play in that country.
Bangladesh cricket team's record in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) is not healthy either, except for a handful of matches.
Bangladesh have played a total of 12 ODIs outside the subcontinent from 2016-17 to 2021-2022 and have played 6 Test matches, winning one of them only.
In most of these matches, the batters suffered from swing, movement and bounce.
Opener Tamim Iqbal scored just 360 runs at an average of 24 in 15 ODIs in these countries in the past 5 years.
Liton Das fared even worse. He has scored just 248 runs in the SENA countries at an average of 20.6 in 12 ODIs in the said period. However, he scored 364 runs in 13 innings at an average of 41.55 in the Test format where he has been in good touch for some time now.
In ODIs, middle-order batsman Mushfiqur Rahim has been quite consistent in the said conditions scoring 669 runs at an average of 39.35 from the 17 games he played there.
Nevertheless, he miserably failed in the Test format. Playing 3 Test matches in the SENA countries in the last 5 years, he scored only 110 runs in 6 innings at an average of 18.33.
Bangladesh's brightest prospect in these countries is Shakib Al Hasan, who found his peak in the 2019 World Cup, scoring more than 600 runs in 8 matches at an average of almost 87. He played a total of 11 matches till 2021 scoring 703 runs at an average of 64.
Although the stats seem decent to good for some individuals, the batting lineup as a whole has failed most of the time. The biggest reason is not understanding the pitch behaviour and weather condition.
Unexpected bounce and swing cause trouble for the batters who are mostly used to playing in flat and dead pitches in Bangladesh.
That said, Bangladesh have their fair share of good performances in the SENA countries. The Champion’s Trophy comeback against New Zealand, beating England in the World Cup 2015 and in their backyard earlier, the Tigers have often done things right in hostile conditions.
Although those victories are often termed as ‘upsets,’ the thing is Bangladesh do not get the opportunity to play enough games on those soils to turn these upsets into a habit.
The environment for playing cricket varies from continent to continent. Most of the batsmen who can play fluently in their own country become ordinary when they play in overseas conditions. This is due to the problem of adapting to the pitch and the overall condition.
It will be a false statement to claim that Bangladesh cannot play in the SENA conditions. They just don’t get enough chances to prove their ability.
