Sylhet fail to capitalise on good starts

Sylhet's start to the BPL at their home ground - with three wins in a row - gave them the best platform for a play-off finish. But they ended up losing seven of their next nine games to end in fifth place.

Upul Tharanga and Andre Fletcher gave them three good starts, on which they capitalised and bowled effectively to win games. Liam Plunkett, Abul Hasan and Nasir Hossain kept things tight, but all of this quickly fizzled out.

Their next win came against Chittagong, when they bowled them out for just 67 runs. But it came far too late in the tournament - by then, they lost their momentum, and a place in the last four wasn't possible.

It was supposed to be an exciting team with the likes of Sabbir Rahman, Ross Whiteley, Nurul Hasan and Danushka Gunathilaka. But international commitments and injuries also got in the way, and Sylhet ended up having to rotate every game. They would also rue not having Waqar Younis around in a full-time coaching role from the start. He started off as a goodwill ambassador before being asked to join the team as mentor when things weren't going well under Zafrul Ehsan.

Some of their local players did not meet expectations. Captain Nasir Hossain was good with the ball on most occasions, but he did not perform his primary job - as a batsman - effectively. Sabbir Rahman did decently, but there were no match-winning knocks. Nurul Hasan and Kamrul Islam Rabbi couldn't set the BPL alight either.

When they were winning, it was mainly due to the Fletcher-Tharanga pair giving them good starts, and then Abul Hasan and Liam Plunkett bowling splendidly in the middle to late overs.

Kicking off their preparation and recruitment process much earlier than when they did in 2017 would be the good way to launch the 2018 campaign.