The 2023-24 Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League (DPL) concluded with Abahani retaining the title. However, despite their team victory, individual batting performances were down compared to previous years.
Only three players crossed the 600-run mark: Mahidul Islam (Mohammedan), Parvez Hossain (Prime Bank), and Saif Hasan (Sheikh Jamal). This is a significant drop from the previous season, where Abahani's openers Naeem Sheikh and Enamul Haque scored a combined 1766 runs.
Enamul Haque, who set the List A record for most runs in a single season last year (1138), only managed 453 runs this time around. However, he emphasizes prioritizing team success over personal achievements.
Several factors may have contributed to the lower batting averages. Coach’s point to the challenging heat and changes in the wicket compared to past seasons. Sheikh Jamal's coach Sohail Islam also raises concerns about the overall balance of the tournament, suggesting that weak teams may have affected batting opportunities for players on stronger teams. In such a performance, Enamul prioritized the needs of the team rather than personal achievements, 'I didn't really look at any direction. I am satisfied with my batting. I was able to fulfill what the team wanted. I managed to make the team the champion.'' Enamul also mentioned the heat, 'even in this heat, the tournament is ending well.
However, Sheikh Jamal's coach Sohail Islam said, “The heat has fallen towards the end. He thinks that the wicket has changed a bit compared to the last few years.”
Batters have to take more challenges to play the new ball." Those batting at the top had a difficult task. You will see that the pacers have led the bowling in this tournament.
With this, Sohail brought forward the issue of the balance of the tournament, 'The way the strong teams should play in the league, this time the lower teams were not like that. Sohail also raised the question of how the batsmen batting next will increase their runs if there are few runs matches.
