The Rise and Rise of Bangladesh

The Rise and Rise of Bangladesh: When the Indian selectors sat together and decided to send a full strength squad to tour Bangladesh, many couldn’t comprehend the logic behind the decision. Their below par performances in bilateral series with India and their dismal ODI ranking forced us to believe that they would be nothing more than pushovers. And look what has transpired. India were about to get the shock of the season.

The highly inspired Bangla tigers proved too hot to handle for the men in blue. It wasn’t even a contest and we thought we would be using this phrase the other way round. Once again cricket showed how gloriously uncertain a game it is. India were without a doubt not ready for it but let us for a moment put India aside and focus on Bangladesh.

There couldn’t have been a better way to avenge their quarter final defeat in the world cup. You could sense that they knew what to expect from India and prepared themselves accordingly. The current series was anything but similar to the previous one where they failed even to chase 104 in one of the games. At the outset one could feel that this is a much more confident and rejuvenated unit. One which is not afraid to take on the best and has the belief and the will to go the distance.

Let us not forget that in many ways they were not quite playing to their strengths. Spin is as common as the ‘Tuk-Tuk’ in Bangladesh, and here you saw them fielding four pacers. Over the years pace has never been their go to department. They always had good spinners, most of them left armers, as has been famously documented and the bowling essentially revolved around the tweakers. But in the last two years they have not only found the quick men but a degree of quality associated with them.

Rubel Hussain and Taskin Ahmed would push for a place in most international sides. And how can one not talk about the sensational Mustafizur Rehman. This boy from a small village in Bangladesh has literally put the cricket world on his feet. The skill that he possesses for a nineteen year old is unheard of. The most impressive aspect was that he remained equally penetrative in all the three games unlike many who come about as one match wonders and only flatter to deceive in the long run. He is a special talent and being a left armer also lends the required variety to the attack.

Purely for his brilliance the pro among the two Rubel was seen playing the supporting role. He is also quite capable of surprising the opposition with his lively pace and bounce. Shakib Al Hasan is arguably among the best all-rounders in modern cricket. Tameem Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar can destroy the best of the attacks on their day. In Mushfiqur Rahim they have a keeper who could play as a pure batsman in the side. And let us remember that they were hampered by injury to their key players like Mahamudullah who was the hero of their world cup campaign. In Mortaza they have a leader who inspires not only by words but by animations and actions.

Things have changed now, and Bangladesh no longer want to just impressing people and end up on the other side coming close to stealing a victory. They are tired of winning hearts. Instead, they want to win games and let the results speak about their performance. Bangladesh many believe, have a bunch of cricketers who could achieve greater laurels than they have already done. Richard Pybus and his men want to play their cricket with intent and that could only be welcome news.

The Road Ahead-

The will to perform away from home has to be the central focus for Bangladesh from now on. Overseas results will certainly value much more. Bangladesh without a doubt have the ability to turn fortunes there as well. Many thought that series wins against Windies and New Zealand in 2010 would act as a catalyst for the next big step. It was not to be. Thus it is even more crucial for them to build over this comprehensive showing and enter an era of consistency for Bangladesh cricket.