Why are Sri Lanka and Bangladesh so poor at T20I batting?

In the long term, there has not been one particular phase of the game in which they have struggled – they have been poor in the powerplay, middle overs death. But since 2024, some differences have emerged. Sri Lanka have become a middling team (sixth out of ten) in the powerplay, while Bangladesh are middling (fifth out of ten) at the death. That progress has perhaps been powered by their improved six-hitting, as Mohammad Isam lays out here. But they both continue to both be poor through the middle overs and poor overall.What could possibly be behind such long-term dysfunction for these two nations specifically? A theory has arisen, independently in each country, that might explain these run rates. Tracks in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – at the Premadasa and Mirpur stadiums especially – are too spin-friendly to allow batters to develop more aggressive aspects of their game, or so the thinking goes.In August 2023, for example, Sanath Jayasuriya tweeted his displeasure at low-scoring surfaces at the Premadasa in the Lanka Premier League, arguing that pitches should “fuel positive, aggressive play” to “electrify the fans”. He was in charge of the Dambulla Aura team then, but is now head coach of Sri Lanka’s men. Around the same time, Sri Lanka captain’s captain then, Wanindu Hasaranga, also made his displeasure for slower Premadasa tracks known.Bangladesh’s players, meanwhile, have asked to play as few T20Is in Mirpur as possible, preferring the better batting track in Sylhet. Just a couple of months ago, Mike Hesson, Pakistan’s coach, slammed the Mirpur surface calling it “not up to international standards” when his team were dismissed for 110.At first blush, the numbers line up in support of this theory. Since the start of 2020, matches played in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are ninth and tenth respectively for run rate (innings involving top ten teams only). T20Is in these countries have also seen the two lowest batting averages over the last few years.

So we have long-term correlation. But do we have causation? It’s difficult to pin down exactly whether the pitches are the source of the problem, given a whole host of other factors (domestic structure, resources, coaching, strategy, etc) could be affecting these outcomes. But a further set of stats suggests that the pitches being part of the problem is a strain of thought worth pursuing.When Bangladesh and Sri Lanka play overseas, you would expect their scoring rates to be substantially better than at home on account of the pitches overseas being better on average, right? But since 2020 both Sri Lanka’s and Bangladesh’s scoring rates have only increased marginally when playing top ten opposition away from home. Sri Lanka have an improvement of 0.28 runs per over, while Bangladesh show an improvement of 0.70. Other teams, meanwhile, average 1.53 runs per over more when they play outside of Bangladesh or Sri Lanka than in those nations.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}})}();

To put that another way, if we use batting innings in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as a baseline, Sri Lanka average 5.6 more runs per innings away from home. Bangladesh average 14 more runs per innings away. Everyone else put together averages 30.6 runs more when not playing in either of those countries.(For the stats in the above two paragraphs, only matches against teams in the top ten were considered. And only matches in the home nations, plus the UAE, where, because of geopolitical circumstances in South Asia, many teams play matches against top opposition. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have their away records reflected. For other teams, innings in both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been removed.)Clearly, these are significant issues that both teams need to solve in the next few months as the attention focuses on T20Is in men’s cricket. But there are some advantages for teams accustomed to low-scoring surfaces. The UAE, where the Asia Cup is being played, has also had its share of low-scoring matches, which Sri Lanka and Bangladesh may enjoy. Next year’s T20 World Cup will also be co-hosted by Sri Lanka, and the Premadasa is almost inevitably bound to host more matches than any other Sri Lankan ground.And yet there is also the problem, for these two teams, of India hosting many World Cup matches. That is a country that is used to seeing big T20 scores.But T20I cricket will be played beyond the next six months. If Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are to solve their long-term run-rate problems in this format, they would do well to at least take serious notice of the fact that their home pitches don’t really give their batters a chance of playing more expansive brands of cricket.