Bangladesh’s World Cup campaign ended on a sorry note as they were comprehensively beaten in the hands of Pakistan by 94 runs in Lords on Friday. It was Bangladesh’s worst performance in the tournament. The 12th edition of the Cricket World Cup has been full of ups and downs as Bangladesh finished in seventh position.
Before the World Cup, many predicted Bangladesh to secure a semifinals berth because of team’s perfect blend of players with vast experience and hungry youths. However, the massive potential of this talented Tigers roster was not exploited to its full potential. Throughout the tourney there was only one big positive for the Tigers and it was the ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan’s excellence with both the bat and bowl. He was the one who made his team win matches, kept on breaking records and making new ones. Shakib ended his glorious World Cup run with 606 runs and 11 wickets under his belt. He is the only cricketer to achieve this feat. He also became only the third batsman to reach the 600-run mark in a World Cup.
However, except Shakib, the whole World Cup was a bit doom and gloom for the Tigers. The reason behind this was failure to work as a team collectively. There were individual brilliances in matches but Tigers failed to perform together in all three departments of the game consistently. One of the disappointments of this World Cup was fielding effort of the team, which was shambolic to say the least. A major frustration was opener Tamim Iqbal and skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s performance with bat and bowl respectively. The duo could not get their act together and were consistently inconsistent with their performances.
Tigers beat South Africa and Afghanistan, pulled off a record chase against West Indies, showed several moments of brilliance in a stern chase against Australia, and nearly beat New Zealand. Except emphatic defeat against Pakistan, Bangladesh overall were competitive throughout the tournament and heaped praise of experts around the world. There was another positive other than Shakib and it was ace pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman’s 20-wicket haul in the World Cup. The left arm pacer became the fastest bowler from Bangladesh to grab 100 ODI wickets during the World Cup match against Pakistan. Fizz bagged a second consecutive fifer and also became the fourth fastest to 100 wickets among ODI bowlers. He is now in second position in the leading wicket takers tally behind Australia’s Mitchell Starc (24).
So, the World Cup ended in an inauspicious style. However, the current Tigers squad is talented enough to produce better performances and results. The young players need proper nurturing and the team in general need to bring consistency in players’ performance. The future is not bleak after all.
