Will Soumya's career-best tournament be a turning point?

Will Soumya's career-best tournament be a turning point?

Soumya Sarkar is a mystery. He can score runs quickly, hit big sixes, which means he is an ideal batsman for T20s. However, his record in T20s has no reflection on this. The most important thing in T20 batting is his strike rate.

Leaving aside the national team, there is not much performance to speak of in any recognized T20 league. The Global Super League that ended in Guyana today is an exception in this regard. The highest run scorer of this tournament, the best in the final, the best in the series - all are Soumya. Is this tournament going to be a turning point in the T20 career of this left-handed opener?

Let's first see what Soumya has done in the Global Super League. He has scored 188 runs in 5 matches. His strike rate is 142.42, which is the highest among batsmen who have scored at least 100 runs in the tournament. He also has the highest batting average of 47. Soumya has also hit the tournament's highest 9 sixes.

His career has been exceptionally consistent throughout the tournament. After scoring 27 runs off 20 balls in the first match, he scored a fifty against Australia's Victoria in the next match. Which came off 39 balls. Of course, Soumya's team did not win these two matches. However, Soumya did his job well. In the third match against the hosts Amazon Warriors, he could not only give the team a good start, but he could only score 2 runs before being out.

He played an innings of 22 runs off 13 balls in the next match against Lahore. And today, in the final against Victoria in Providence, he was unbeaten on 86 runs off 54 balls. All in all, I don't think he has played such a T20 tournament before.

His best T20 performance for the national team has to be the series against Zimbabwe in 2021.

He won the Man of the Match award in two of the three matches. He was also the Man of the Series. However, looking at his entire career record, this has to be called an isolated incident. In 85 international T20 matches, Soumya's average is 17.60, strike rate 122.75. He has not scored a fifty in the last 28 innings. In all T20 matches, the average is below 20. The strike rate is also less than 120.

If we break down T20 cricket further, we can look at the performance in the BPL. The situation there is even worse. The average is only 18.07 in 99 matches, with a strike rate of 113. This could be an argument for the fact that runs are scored less in the BPL. However, in this BPL, Liton Das has batted at a strike rate of 127. Although not extraordinary, it is not bad in the BPL. And judging by his talent and ability, it seems that Soumya can be placed next to Liton.

Soumya himself must be aware of his statistics. That is why he sees a good performance in his first tournament played outside the country as a turning point. He said, taking the Man of the Series award, 'Thank you to Rangpur Riders for giving me the opportunity. I have played in a global tournament for the first time. This is one of the turning points of my career.’

However, Soumya is going to get the stage to use his great rhythm very soon. Soumya is scheduled to take the field for Bangladesh in St. Kitts tomorrow. Although the version is different, Bangladesh will be looking forward to Soumya as he will be playing in the same conditions.

Soumya is not doing badly in ODIs. He scored runs in all three matches in the latest Afghanistan series. He did not score big runs, but he gave the team a good start. He scored 33, 35 and 24 runs in the three matches.

However, judging by his ability, there is no room for Soumya to be happy with these innings. If his unbeaten 86-run innings in the Global Super League final is truly a turning point for his career, it will be a big achievement for Bangladesh cricket.