[Imtiaz]

Statistically, it has been proven beyond doubt, that Bangladesh badly lags behind in batting. The bowling, insofar as one dayers are concerned, is just below average. The one-day bowling should be viewed differnetly from Test match bowling. In Test matches, it is ultimately wicket takers who win matches. In one-day matches, in addition to wicket taking, economy does a play bigger part than it does in test matches.

India won the world cup in 1983 with an average bowling attack. Only Kapil Dev could be regarded as high class. Binny, Madan Lal etc. do not conjure images of attacking bowling. But they contained well.

So what do we do about our batting ? Well, of course, practice hard and all that. Unlike our bowling, our batting is statistically in the pits.

However, they could always face, in match conditions, the best bowling we can offer when they are in the camp, say.

Why not a Batsmen's XI vs. a Bowler's XI. No , I am not suggesting all batsmen vs. all bowlers. However, I am suggesting that the first choice batsmen should be in one team and the first choice bowlers should be in another team. The rest of the players come in from those players who cannot make the "first team" in their department.

Why ? This way our top batsmen play against the top bowlers and vice versa. The others have to perform to be included in the "other" team. Therefore, the second choice batsmen have to fight to get into the Batsmen's team. The same for the second string bowlers.

My teams:

Batsmen's XI

Javed Omar
Mohammad Ashraful
Rajin Saleh
Hannan Sarkar
Habibul Bashar
Khalid Mashud
Nadif Chowdhury
Manjural Islam
Tareq Aziz
Enamul Huq Jr.
Talha Jubair

My knowledge of the second string is not very good. So the batting order maybe a bit lop-sided. However, I would send Hannan and Bashar at No.4 and 5, in view of their proven inability against the moving ball.

Bowler's XI

Nafis Iqbal
Manjural Islam Rana
Aftab Ahmed
Alok Kapali
Faisal Hossain
Mushfiqur Rahman
Dhiman Ghosh [wk]
Mohammad Rafique
Abdur Razzak
Tapash Baisya
Shahadat Hossain*

* to be replaced by Mashrafe. Then , Shahadat can replace Jubair in the other team.

Your turn....