T20 trials face litmus test

It might have been a depleted Bangladeshi side that went down to Zimbabwe on Wednesday, but almost nobody in Khulna took the defeat lightly.

It was for the first time that the people of the city watched their team lose a limited-overs match here and the discussions at the gatherings sounded quite anxious.

From the addas at the random tea stalls to the limited conversations on the battery-driven scooters, there was just one question doing the rounds: Will Bangladesh field a weak team for the final T20I as well?

The 31-run defeat did not sit too well with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president and he had made that obvious when he publicly criticised the team management's decision, to include four debutants in the game, following the match on Wednesday.

According to a member of the team management, the decision to make five changes was made in a bid to provide each of the players with as much game time as possible.

The problem at hand, as it seems, is that there are a number of players who are suffering from niggles. Mustafizur Rahman has an issue with his shoulder, Tamim Iqbal has a slight problem with his hand, Mushfiqur Rahim is recovering from a strain in his hamstring and then there's Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who has a history of getting injured before major events.

As a result, the management wants the newer players to be as prepared as possible in case any of them are called in as replacements during the Asia Cup -- which will be a T20 tournament -- and the ICC World Twenty20.

The two tournaments are scheduled to take place back to back with and according to the management there is a chance that the players may be affected by fatigue.

To counter that they want to create a bigger pool of players for the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty 20, which is why players like Mosaddek Hossain and Muktar Ali were included in the playing eleven on Wednesday. The team management wanted to see how these players reacted under pressure.

However, like the BCB president, there were a couple of others within the think-tank who critcised the move. Their point being that there should have been more balance in the playing eleven.

According to them, leaving out players like Tamim Iqbal and Arafat Sunny exposed the inexperience of the debutants.

'One can't treat these games like practice matches' was the common sentiment expressed by those who opposed the move.

With the final game today, it is still uncertain as to whether the team management will stick to its original plan of providing the newer players with as much experience as possible or whether they are going to turn back to the experience of Tamim, Sunny and Taskin Ahmed.

Whatever be the move, the one thing that is certain following the BCB's reaction after Wednesday's defeat is that anything less than a win could perhaps lead to serious ramifications in the team management's strategy.