[fwullah]

I have a VERY BIG QUESTION to ask - this problem of our batting - has this started just recently, or is this the problem of ours since the day we started playing International cricket - say, in the '80s? I would say the answer is yes, our problem with the batting started since the days we started playing cricket.

But this was not evident to us always as we had some experienced and relatively reliable batsman at number 4, 5 & 6 (Bulbul, Akram, Nannu/Durjoy) and sometimes players like Durjoy, Moni could cheap in at number 7 position.

As a result, we could see totals of 200 to 220 (be it only 25 out of our 95 ODIs).

So, instead of trying to find the correct opening pair, I strongly believe that we should have started getting 3 established batsman at number 4, 5 & 6 in ODIs.

I believe this way because we had opening problems even during our ICC trophy tournaments. Players like Raquibul Hassan, Gazi Ashraful Hossain Lipu (who used to play at 3) - they could never handle the first few overs of a One Day match without going out cheaply. Only a few batsman could score runs at the opening position and they were always too much praised, which ultimately resulted in their downfall (example: Jahangir Alam the wicket keeper had a century once and [only] because of his century, he was selected for a tournament later on).

If we have a strong middle order line up, then doesn't matter what our openers do, we won't at least have to see us losing 5 wickets in the first 10 overs of a One Day match.

This is what should have been our approach, yet instead, we're trying to get the best opening pair at first, and then looking at finding middle order players, which is a more difficult thing to do.

I have been baffled and did not strongly suggest this earlier believing in Whatmore Magic and believing in Dav too much, once we got the win against Zimbabwe (after 5 long years) wasn't our middle order line up a very good one? Instead of having players at 4, 5 & 6, we had players in 3, 4 & 5 (Sumon, Rajin & Ashraful). So at that time, even if Sumon or Rajin failed to perform, Ashraful could come in and may be get us to a respectable total.

But then in the very next series, Foisal was tried at 5, and to be honest wasn't given too much opportunity as those were rain-interrupted matches. Then in the next tournament in Asia Cup, Ashraful was forced to open believing suddenly that we have a good enough middle order, but then with no mental support of having a good batsman coming in after Rajin, coupled with Sumon and Rajin's temporary out of form, we couldn't see a strong middle order. Then now in this ICC Champions Trophy, a completely new batsman, Aftab is tried at the number 5 position.

Anyway, just think - under Whatmore's tenure, Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana was opened when there were some very strong middle order batsman left to play after them, so even if Jayasuriya or Kaluwitharana had failed, Avishka Gunawardena, Aravinda De Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga would come in. Earlier reports say that Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana had the mental strength that if they were to get out cheaply, then there would be enough players coming in - who could score fifties and hundreds.

But does our opening pair have that mental strength? If they go out, who would come in and score some fifties? In short, there is nobody who would come to the rescue and get the team to a total of 200 to 220 if the opening pair of Javed Omar - Mohammad Ashraful fails to perform in many occassions than not.