The biggest problem facing our batsmen

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As we bask in the glory of whitewashing Zimbabwe let us remember that in this series, none of our batsmen really scored any runs other than Nafees and Mehrab. If we can't even dominate an attack that is as weak as Zimbabwe then I have to say that our WC hopes are looking fainter and fainter. While our bowling attack has improved by leaps and bounds, our batting never seems to go anywhere, especially in one day matches.

This is not something new, in fact, if we look at our history of one day matches, it appears that we have crossed 250 very rarely, even when winning matches against very weak opposition such as Hong Kong, Namibia and Kenya and Zimbabwe (the 2006 incarnations). Why is this?

Pretty simple, the batting culture in Bangladesh is over reliant on boundaries and sixes, and not on singles. Meaning we get cameo innings like 16 from 20 balls or 32 from 40 balls padded substantially with boundaries. And when our batsmen are asked to curb down on this instinct instead of taking singles they simply start blocking balls and going for the almighty heave only when they're sure that the shot will clear the boundary.

What this does is slow down the run rate, and create pressure on the batsman until he is forced to play a shot and get run out. In fact, I am shocked that Whatmore has not worked on this at all with our players, as a result our players are unaware that there is a middle ground between playing flamboyant strokes and simply blocking ball after ball. The top teams turn dot balls into ones, ones into twos and twos into threes, this is what keeps the scoreboard ticking, whether setting a score or chasing, and until we can learn to the same we should forget scores above 250.