Bangladesh T20I side right now is strewn with openers and figuring out how they can be incorporated in different roles is a question the management is trying to answer before the ICC T20 World Cup comes around in February next year.
In the recently-concluded three-match Ireland series, the Tigers rotated their openers. Parvez Hossain Emon and Tanzid Hasan Tamim opened the innings in the first two matches while in the final T20I, Saif Hassan replaced Parvez at the top.
Skipper Litton Das is also an opener in the white-ball scheme, having opened in 69 out of his 118 T20I innings. But he has opened in only two of the 25 T20Is he has played in 2025 and has settle into the No.3 slot.
With not many alternatives available in a shallow pipeline of players, the management has to find a way to utilise the openers in other roles in the top order and hopefully churn the best out of them.
The national team batters, including Emon, Tanzid and Saif, are undergoing a skill camp at the Academy Ground in Mirpur under the watchful supervision of head coach Phil Simmons, senior assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin and specialised batting coach Mohammad Ashraful.
"Personally, I think it's better for batters' to have a settled place. However, right now, we have four [openers] in the top order. All four players have been very successful last year," said Ashraful.
"They are scoring a big fifty every second or third match in T20Is… Saif, Parvez, and Tanzid possess the ability to hit sixes standing in their position, not all batters can do that," he added.
Saif has batted at No. 3 and 4 in franchise T20 tournaments like the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and the Global Super League (GSL).
Even though he made his mark for the national side while opening in this year's Asia Cup, he is the likeliest candidate to come down to No.4 in the T20 World Cup set to take place in India and Sri Lanka.
"If we look at Saif's domestic career, he has about 10 centuries in List-A cricket and eight centuries in first-class cricket. When Saif scores, he scores big and he is used to batting as an opener or at No. 3 or 4," Ashraful said.
The former Bangladesh captain also shared that to solve the problem of batting collapses, the coaches are working with the openers in the camp to hone their shot selection and improve execution of low-risk scoring shots.
"Specifically, this training is about ensuring we play more grounded shots. We have the ability to play aerial shots, but we are trying to work on playing more cricketing shots along the ground," he said on the work done with openers.
