‘Wanted India to know what it feels like after losing’ – Bangladesh U19’s Shoriful Islam on unruly behaviour post World Cup final

Shoriful Islam, the Bangladesh U19 left-arm pacer, said that his team wanted India to give a taste of their own medicine after a few close defeats in the past. The final of the U19 World Cup went right down the wire with both teams throwing punches at each other. In the end, the Junior Tigers emerged victorious by three wickets (DLS Method) despite spinner Ravi Bishnoi’s four-wicket haul.

Shoriful stated that the scars of the losses against India in the U19 Asia Cup 2018 and 2019 were pretty afresh. In the 2020 Asia Cup final, Bangladesh lost by five runs, failing to chase down a meager 107. Islam, who got two wickets in the final, including that of Yashasvi Jaiswal, told that he wanted to make India realise what it feels like to face aggressive celebrations after one has lost.

“Actually, we lost two close matches against them in the past. One was the Asia Cup semi-final [in 2018] and the other was a [Asia Cup] final [in 2019]. I can’t describe what those defeats felt like,” Shoriful was quoted as saying in Daily Star.

We were waiting for the day we would meet India: Shoriful Islam

“Before taking the field for the final, all I could think about was what they did after winning and how we felt after losing. So, we didn’t want things to turn out as they did before. We wanted to do our best and fight with all our strength till the last ball,” the speedster mentioned.

“Firstly, we felt really bad. We lost at our home to them, in Dhaka, by one run (Asia Cup final 2019). They celebrated wildly in front of us back then and we couldn’t say anything. We were waiting for the day we would meet them in a final again,” Shoriful quipped.

After the game, a scuffle broke out between the Indian and Bangladesh cricketers. The matter came under the radar of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Even as Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi got punished from India, Bangladesh’s Shamim Hossain, Rakibul Hasan and Towhid Hridoy had to face the brunt of the apex cricket board.

When asked about whether he had ‘revenge’ in mind when he took the field, Shoriful said, “Yeah (laughs). We got the chance. What I wanted was to give it our all. Then they would know what it is like when someone celebrates in front of you like that after you’ve lost.”

Following the ugly scenes, India skipper Priyam Garg said that it was ‘dirty’ on part of the Bangladesh cricketers. Akbar Ali, the Junior Tigers’ skipper, also apologized for the behaviour of his teammates.