[BengaliPagol]

I think people make it seem that its really simple and easy rotating strike as an opening batsman. When the ball is coming quick onto the bat with the new ball its not easy rotating strike. Do you honesty think its easy just nudging around Boult and Southee here and there for singles in the first 10 overs in the game especially when the fielders are close in the circle? And on top of that when they are bowling short as well its not easy rotating strike.

So people need to stop making it out to be that our openers are missing some easy skill which every opener seems to have in world cricket because its a total myth. The difference however is that those openers are comfortable and know their style of batting whereas we tend to panick and not back ourselves. Only BD top order player who rotates strike easy is Mominul Haque. And he is not even an opener. Not sure if people can name me an abundance of openers in world cricket who are fantastic at rotating strike, majority are boundary riders.

However not to avoid the fact that yes our opening pair are poor at rotating strike but you will see someone like Tamim does rotate strike but that happens in the middle period of the game when the ball is older and ball comes onto the bat slower. An opener rotating strike with ease is a real rare quality to have. People need to look at top order NZ players like Latham and Williamson who in the same game scored 22 (35) and 14 (35) respectively.

If you watched the game carefully you could tell that Imrul was searching really hard for quick singles and looked very unnatural and panicky doing it. Thats the problem we need to tell them to look comfortable with the way they bat and not get frustrated too easily and not get too hurried with the situation at hand. Because Sabbir and Imrul were playing some glorious strokes during their innings and that only came about during the times they were relaxed at the crease.

Someone like Sabbir who is terrible at rotating strike was always going to hit a flurry of boundaries in the later part of his innings to make up for the SR. Imrul does that, Tamim does that. And that only happens if players look to play a long innings and stick around the crease ! Because what happens is your eye is in and you know the pace of the wicket well.

Just flippin stay in the crease and look to play a long innings and you will reap rewards easy, Latham and Broom showed that. Just watch early part of Latham's innings in the 1st ODI, he was batting so slowly and he amped it up after he got to 40 runs. NZ batsman want to play a long innings and stick around whereas we look to be in a hurry.

My point is that the rotation of strike from the top order wasn't the main problem. Because our top order set the platform for us. At the rate we were going and with the amount of wickets in hand it should have been a walk in the park for us. The issue was the mental game of our players. Tamim's shot, Imrul falling into the plan of NZ, Mosaddek's shot in that situation etc.

Tamim lacks ability to play a smart and long innings, Imrul looked like he wasn't being proactive enough with the evident plan of NZ, Shakib only looking to ever play cameos but not stick around, score big and grind out an innings, Mosaddek failing in every pressure cooker situation. Even tho Riyad looks to be a bit out of form but he did get a ripper of a ball. But we did severely miss Mushfiq.

End of the day it was just a mental collapse and it happens to even the best teams. We shouldn't overeact too much altho we should definitely be questioning the team selection. However i feel that the loss is going to make our boys even more hungrier for the rest of the series, especially in the test series where they don't have to rotate strike at all if they dont want to lol.