And it must start NOW. As a selector once said to Dhoni in 2007, "Why are you worried, we have four years to the world cup." And Dhoni replied, "We have ONLY FOUR years to the world cup."
Let's take a look at our batting. I have listed our Big 4, and their statistics, and chosen a few players from some of the teams ahead of us to highlight the difference. Take a look at the averages.
Is it any wonder that we don't win games more often? And most of our games that we DO win against them seem to be upsets? On AVERAGE, the top 4 of any of these teams will score 40 more runs than ours. That's almost a whole extra batsman. Our Big 4, despite having more than a decade of experience, still cannot move their average out of the 30s. Mahmudullah can be excused as he comes in late in the innings, and Shakib also brings world class bowling to the team, but the uncomfortable question has to be asked about Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim. And unlike Dhoni, we ONLY have TWO years to the next world cup.
In the 2019 world cup, we carried Mashrafe Mortaza as a bowler and this hampered our team (and not just me, even Shakib hinted at it). What will be our story in 2023?
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