Talha Kamal
What a horrible end to a series, from players to coaching staffs everyone is accountable for this debacle as Bangladesh ended the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka with a comprehensive defeat of 122 runs and suffered the shame of being whitewashed in Colombo on Wednesday.
Nothing went right throughout this series as Tigers were hammered by the Lankan lions in all three departments and were beaten emphatically. After losing the first two ODI’s Bangladesh went into the third and last ODI in hope of a consolation win but that didn’t happen. The worst factor is that instead of improving as matches went by, Bangladesh gradually became worse and the margin of defeats kept on rising, with Bangladesh losing the three-match ODI series by 91-run, 7 wickets and 122-run respectively.
After a poor World Cup campaign, the misery continues for Tigers. Bangladesh are now in worse situation then they were post World Cup.
What can be the reasons for this fiasco, of a team which was dubbed as one of potential semifinal berth contenders before the World Cup? Tigers’ did had some noticeable absentees during the series, with the likes of ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, batsman Liton Das and all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin.
However, that can’t be the only reason for this catastrophe.
There were other senior key players present, with interim skipper Tamim Iqbal, wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim and all-rounder Mahmudullah Riyad, all of them have the potential to turn a game on its head. However, except Mushfiqur no other senior players took responsibility and failed miserably.
Starting with skipper Tamim, it looks like bad form is just not going to let him escape. From captaincy to his own individual form the series was a horrendous one for him.
He just couldn’t inspire the team and finished the series with scores of 0, 19 and 2 respectively. He needs to restart himself and try to get at least somewhere near the old consistent Tamim.
Bowling and fielding was also a mess. None of the pacers or spinners were able to have any positive impact during the series.
New spin and pace bowling coaches Daniel Vettori and Charl Langeveldt respectively will have a lot of work to do, to revive this blunt bowling attack. It looks like batting also needs some fixing as the team who crossed the 300-run mark thrice during the World Cup, have 238 as its highest score in this series.
New head coach is a necessity as Tigers’ looked completely clueless and without any proper plan or strategy against Sri Lankan batting and bowling.
All in all Tigers’ are in a complete mess and bad habits of old are also coming back. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for Bangladesh, return of pivotal absent players with a new coaching setup can revive the Tigers’ ahead of their future missions.
