Bangladesh's turnaround in the first quarter of 2022, with a miraculous Test win in New Zealand and now an ODI series win in South Africa, has been remarkable, and some of their best results have featured Litton Das, Taskin Ahmed and Mehidy Hasan Miraz.
Once considered enigmas, blow-hot-blow-cold cricketers, they have been frontline performers. Litton is scoring runs more often than he isn't, as a white-ball opener and a red-ball No 7. Taskin was Player of the Series in the 2-1 ODI series win against South Africa. Mehidy is becoming a reliable allrounder, and not just at home.
For all three, the new dawns have come after their darkest phases as international cricketers.
Taskin was nearly forgotten after a long run of unimpressive returns. Litton was dropped for the second time in his career last year. Mehidy was staring at a career as a home-only player.
In Bangladesh cricket, it's easy to be the new star, but doing justice to the initial promise is tough, avoiding the pitfalls of sudden fame and becoming a consistent performer even tougher. The three players didn't lose their quality, but it seemed, for a long time, that none of them would be able to go really big.
Taskin was the big fast-bowling hope for Bangladesh when he burst on to the scene in 2014. He was tall and well-built, had a sweet smile but was quick, clocking 150kph at times during the 2015 World Cup. But his decline, by 2017, was rapid. Despite all the initial promise, he took seven wickets at 97.42 in his first five Tests. After his comeback in 2021, he has taken 16 wickets at 38.93 in five Tests.
Mehidy's 19-wicket haul in his debut Test series is part of Bangladesh cricket folklore. It took them to their maiden Test win against England, and made him a household name overnight. Mehidy continued to show promise in Bangladesh's 100th Test, which they won in Colombo, but the wickets dried up after that, for five years or so.
Touring turned out to be Mehidy's major problem. Before the ongoing South Africa tour, his home vs away bowling average was 23.43 vs 53.43. He took 47 Test wickets at 53.28 in overseas conditions in his first three years. Mehidy lost his place in T20Is, too, in 2019, with Mahedi Hasan taking his place. When Nayeem Hasan was picked ahead of Mehidy in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in February 2020, it seemed like it was about to be a long spell in the wilderness for Mehidy.
Around the same time came the Covid-19 pandemic.
Taskin had been out of the Bangladesh team for two years already, and with practice facilities shutting down indefinitely, he felt it was the end for him.
Just about then, Litton struck Bangladesh's highest-ever individual ODI score, against Zimbabwe. It was during his best series after several false starts since his 2015 debut. Litton had come into the Bangladesh team after dominating domestic cricket for a couple of seasons, but he couldn't quite bring the same consistency into the international level. He was dropped for a year-and-a-half, but the old inconsistency didn't go away. An Asia Cup hundred or a 94 in the World Cup promised a lot, but returns were infrequent when is this? Asia Cup 2018 and 2019 WC?. So, when he struck two hundreds against Zimbabwe, Litton felt he had turned a corner. But the lockdown took out his sting, too.