If Soumya Sarkar could hold the catch of Dinesh Chandimal at slip in the second ball of Sri Lankan innings it would have been five straight ducks for an opener in the Asia Cup.
Opening is a privilege in every format of cricket and it is more so in Twenty20 because batsmen get the opportunity to face maximum amount of deliveries.But in the ongoing Asia Cup it has become almost a curse.
In 515 Twenty20 as of Tuesday, there are only 10 instances of both openers suffering a duck and two of them occurred in this tournament.
Barring few exceptions, openers struggled almost in every game, leaving the other batsmen too much to do during the championship.
The phenomena started in the very first game when India lost the opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan in the very second over.
Rohit Sharma survived a drop catch to score 83 runs, but it is a rare instance of an opener making a match-winning contribution in the Asia Cup so far.
India took control of the game as Bangladesh lost both the openers for just 15 runs.
In the next match between UAE and Sri Lanka, the defending champions put 68 runs in the opening stand, which ironically remained as the highest opening stand in the tournament till date.
In the same game, UAE lost their openers in the very first over and the match ended as a contest literally there.
The reason behind the openers’ repeated failure in the Asia Cup remains a mystery, though former Bangladesh opener Javed Omar claimed that he pointed out a reason.
‘The ball is not coming in an even pace in these wickets,’ Javed told New Age on Wednesday.
‘It is one reason opening batsmen are struggling. Also there are some seam movements.
Against Bangladesh Ashish Nehra used this movement beautifully. Other seamers are also getting more or less some help from the wicket.’
Javed said the main reason behind this unusual behaviour of Mirpur wicket is its age.
‘A wicket can behave like this because of two reasons. One is excessive use, which we have seen in Bangladesh Premier League.
‘The other is its new layout. Of late the curators implanted some grasses. Because of this, Mirpur wicket is changing its nature.’
Javed added that a batsman must have solid technique and proper planning for adjustment in this kind of wicket.
‘Technique is required everywhere. Different wicket requires different technique and as batsman you have to adjust. The most important is planning. You cannot just go out and hit four or sixes.
‘In Twenty20s openers tend to hit four and sixes straightway in order to take the advantage of powerplay. But they simply cannot do this in this wicket,’ he said.
-With New Age input
