Bangladesh’s overseas bowling figures have been woeful

Bangladesh have won just four Test matches overseas in their 19-year history of playing Test cricket. That is a huge ignominy for a team that prides itself on being a Test nation. Their wins have come against West Indies (twice in 2009, but with the players revolting, West Indies were fielding a second-string side), once in Zimbabwe in 2013 and once in Colombo in 2017.

Over the years, Bangladesh’s batting has been cited as a major weak point for them. Their batsmen faltered at Indore too in the first Test against India when they were bowled out for a 150 in the first innings. A glance at the home and away batting records of Bangladesh, however, shows little difference.

At home, since 2015 they average 27.91, while overseas that number drops to 23.66. There is a 4.25-run difference, but again in this same time frame, teams like India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have a bigger difference in home and away averages. A look at the batsmen and their overseas and home numbers also paint a different picture than what is commonly presumed.

Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan and Soumya Sarkar all average better overseas than at home. So if batting isn’t the issue, we have to look someplace else. With the ball, Bangladesh have often been found wanting abroad. While their four Test wins have all come powered by their potent spin attack, the same attack hasn’t been effective often enough. This also explains why they haven’t won as many games overseas as they would have liked to.

This table (stats since 2015) shows that Bangladesh have the worst bowling average for teams outside home since 2015. They average 56.53 while striking at a poor rate of 89.6, both easily the worst in the world since 2015.

The pace against spin difference is also evident. While the spinners average 28.22 at home since 2015, outside Bangladesh, those numbers go to 51.87. With pacers, it is poor both at home and away – an average of 52.8 at home and 62.44 away from home.

Among the bowlers, Shakib and Abu Jayed are the only two bowlers to have decent numbers overseas with the ball. Jayed showcased that with a good showing at Indore while Shakib is unavailable for the next few years owing to a ban.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Indranil Mukherjee