Bangladesh Under-19 national team disappointed much in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, the fans when they were eliminated from the Super Six stage.
The Young Tigers, who left the country with high hope to regain the title, they won in 2020, in South Africa, found their dream shattered after going down to Pakistan in the second match of the Super Six by five runs.
It was highly expected that the Young Tigers, will regain the title in South African soil where they won four years back.
Young Tigers, played over all five matches, three matches in the group stage and two in the Super Six phase.
Bangladesh had to face only two strong opponents, India in the group stage, and Pakistan in the Super Six, but suffered defeats in both the matches.
Bangladesh won their matches against weaker sides, who are also outlying from of the Test playing nations like USA, Nepal and Ireland.
This Under-19 team, though went to South Africa with huge motivations after winning the Asia Cup men’s Under-19 cricket surpassing India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, so, the expectations were high from this team.
But they just shattered all hopes failing to reflect their competence to rejoice the Asia Cup momentum, as they suffered defeats to strong sides and won the matches against comparatively lower opponents.
In fact, in their very first match against Indian Under-19 team, Bangladesh hinted that this time they are not at their optimal level when they saw a huge blow in their opening encounter after going down by 84-runs. If we have a look to the scorecard of that match, neither the bowlers nor the batters could prove their mettle, as in both departments Bangladesh were beaten to their opponents, as India batted first and scored 251 runs and Bangladesh chasing to the target were bundled out for only 167 runs after playing 45.5 overs.
In the opening match, bowlers did comparatively better, as they could restricted the defending champions and the top favorites India by 251 runs with Maruf Mridha taking five wickets. Among the bowlers, Maruf Mridha, who claimed five wickets against India in the first match, could not shine in the next three matches, as he had two wickets against Ireland, one wicket against Nepal was wicketless against USA.
Among the batters, only Shihab James had some consistency when he scored 54 against India, unbeaten 55 against Ireland, 31 against USA and 26 runs against Pakistan when there was only centurion, Ariful Islam scoring 103 runs against USA and scored 59 against Nepal. Besides two batters none could illustrate their talent throughout the tournament.
Meanwhile, among all Ashiqqur Rahman Shibli, who was the top scorer in the Asia Cup, disappointed much when his highest score was 44 against Ireland, and scored 16. 04, 27, and 14 against Nepal, Pakistan, USA and India. In fact the Tigers batters or bowlers failed to demonstrate the performances were needed to fulfill their target to regain the title.