New Delhi: On the eve of his team’s opening game in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, Bangladesh skipper Nazmul Hossain Shanto appeared very confident. The Champions Trophy is arguably the most competitive cricket tournament in the world, besides the T20 World Cup, and Shanto’s upbeat mood before taking on India in Dubai stood out.
“If you look at this format, our team is quite balanced, and we believe we can beat any team in this tournament,” Shanto had said in the pre-match press conference.
After winning the toss against India, he reinforced his confidence in his team, recalling Bangladesh’s ODI series victory over Rohit Sharma’s side at home in 2022 and stating that they would draw inspiration from that triumph.
Seven hours later, India humbled Bangladesh to secure their first victory. Despite the loss, the men in green displayed commendable character in both batting and bowling but fell short of challenging the Indian side.
Bangladesh was knocked out of the tournament in their second game against New Zealand Monday. However, they displayed a far more positive approach, learning from their mistakes and showing resilience in the face of adversity—qualities that were largely absent in host Pakistan. Even after India removed their top two batters early, Bangladesh continued to fight against Shami and Rana, refusing to back down.
Also read: New Zealand’s victory knocks Pakistan & Bangladesh out of Champions Trophy
Quick learners but not the smartest
After the loss to India, Bangladesh’s coach, Phil Simmons, openly admitted to failing in the first powerplay. A tweaked top order came out, and they seemed to have heard the call from their coach in the next game against New Zealand.
Tanzid Hasan dispatched a short-of-a-length ball from Jamieson with a touch of class and an abundance of flair to establish that the Bangladesh batting group were not any mug with the bat.
There was no shortage of flair, and Tanzid deposited one more six off Matt Henry, who tried to test his mettle after a barrage of dot balls.
Their skipper walked the talk of confidence in the park and played with aggression to hit Jamieson with three boundaries.
They were not the smartest of the two sides in the park, and continuous attempts to hit big shots proved them costly. They kept throwing their wickets away at regular intervals, much to the dismay of commentators who could not quite get the objective behind the suicidal dismissals.
Those dismissals took the sheen off what could have been an impressive batting performance as the Bangla Tigers were facing a must-win game. But between those poorly timed dismissals, Bangladesh’s batting group showed enough promise against the tournament’s top two sides.
While their rearguard action against India after collapsing to 35 for 5 showcased their grit and determination to take the game deep, their performance against New Zealand highlighted the flamboyance and resilience of their young batters, who refused to be bogged down—unlike Pakistan’s struggling batting lineup in the tournament.
The number game
Bangladesh’s first remarkable success in the 50 overs format came in 1999 when they proved to be a giant killer, defeating Wasim Akram-led Pakistan in that year’s World Cup.
However, their rare successes—rightly termed upsets in cricketing circles—came sporadically, such as their famous wins against Ricky Ponting-led Australia in 2004 and Rahul Dravid-led India in the 2007 ODI World Cup, the latter dealing a significant blow to India’s campaign.
From the 2007 World Cup, Bangladesh started getting better in the format, and 2009 was the best year in pure wins—14 out of 19 games that year.
Another remarkable year came in 2015 when they first defeated Eoin Morgan-led England to knock them out of the ODI World Cup and followed it up with a series win at home against Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side. India’s star-studded batting line-up had no answer to the mystery pace bowling of their newcomer sensation Mustafizur Rahman.
Although Bangladesh has delivered strong performances against top teams in the past, those victories have been scattered across long intervals between global tournaments. Since 2015, the men in green have won 60 out of 141 completed ODI games—a respectable figure on paper. However, many of those wins came against lower-ranked teams.
During the same period, their performance in T20Is was not so impressive, with only 50 wins out of 141 games and no notable wins secured against top teams.
Consistent side since the Covid pandemic
While Bangladesh’s success was always limited to one odd series or win, their performances became consistent after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The feather in their cap came when, under the leadership of Tamim Iqbal, they won their first ODI series in South Africa by posting a massive total against the pace of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen. In the third ODI of the series, Taskin Ahmed bowled his heart out to give them a series win away from home.
Later, in 2022, a full-strength Indian team were defeated at home on pitches that aided spinners.
Out of the 72 matches played since 2020, Bangladesh have won 35, including series wins against South Africa and India at home.
Finding their feet again
The last two years have not been as successful for Bangladesh as they proved ineffective in the ODI World Cup in 2023, and some of it could also be attributed to the departure and poor form of old guards such as Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan.
However, the emergence of all-around players such as Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Rishad Hossain would allow them to form a strong core for years to come, along with express pacers such as Nahid Rana bursting onto the scene.
The game against New Zealand once again established how far Bangladesh have come in their repertoire of bowlers, with Taskin Ahmed producing a jaffa to breach a near-perfect defence of Will Young. At the same time, Rana could extract extra bounce rapidly to do the near-impossible task of edging Kane Williamson behind the wicket.
Bangladesh were without key batter Liton Das, their former lynchpin, who was dropped due to poor form. His return to form and into the squad will only make their batting line-up more stronger.
They have always been known to produce quality spinners. Still, the emergence of impressive batteries in the form of rookie Nahid Rana and Taskin Ahmed’s consistency has added another dimension to their ODI game that the past teams of Bangladesh never had.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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Bangladeshis have always been incredibly talented at “naagin” dances. Cricket fans expect them to entertain them with this authentic Bangladeshi art form.