Ahead of their game against Pakistan, Bangladesh skipper Shakib al Hasan was seen batting in the nets for hours together in the Eden Gardens. The left-hander gave extra attention to playing the pull shot, as the fast bowlers fed him short balls for a long session.
“We bowled some shorts balls to him in the nets considering he got out in a couple of matches against short balls and we just tried to make sure that he gets his confidence back,” Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam told reporters following the game against Pakistan on Tuesday.
Shakib has fallen to the short ball in five of the six matches he has played at the World Cup so far. He has been a shadow of himself in this edition of the tournament after having scored 606 runs in the 2019 edition. In the 2023 tournament, Shakib has just 104 runs at an average of 17.33.
Shakib has looked vulnerable against pacers – he has scored 50 off 89 balls against them but has fallen to them in every match he has batted in. He has an average of 8.33 and strike rate of 56.17 against the quicks so far. In those 89 balls, Shakib played out 56 dot balls. Several teams in this World Cup have used the bouncer against the Bangladesh batter having found it to be a weakness.
“Shanto is great on the short ball, so we try and keep it away from him but to other [Bangladesh] players yeah, we did try and use it to take wickets with it,” Netherlands’ Bas de Leede said following their win over Bangladesh, in which Shakib gloved a ball that was a fraction short of length angling outside off, but the extra bounce did the trick. During the game against South Africa, he nicked a similar delivery from Lizzard Williams. The only time he fell to different kind of dismissal was when England’s Reece Topley cleaned him up in Dharamsala.
On Tuesday, the left-handed batter showed a lot more patience as he kept Mahmudullah company while the latter scored another half-century. Shakib looked set for a big knock in this fixture, but Babar Azam ruined those plans by bringing back Haris Rauf who unfurled short balls at him. Shakib took the bait and top-edged one to fall for 43.
Fakhar Zaman revealed Pakistan have always resorted to short balls against Bangladesh. “I am not sure what was the plan of the bowler and the captain but whenever we play Bangladesh we know that they are weak against short balls and we try to go for it,” Fakhar said.
