‘The Rise of Bangladesh Cricket’

Bangladesh confirmed their rise as a major force in limited overs cricket when they thrashed New Zealand by 5 wickets in the Champions Trophy on Friday to claim a spot in the semi-finals. It was the first time that they have qualified for semi-finals of an ICC event. The fact that Bangladesh beat New Zealand by five wickets shows just how dominant they can be in the latter part of this tournament.
It all started in November 2014 when Zimbabwe toured Bangladesh and was thrashed in the ODIs 5-0. A clean sweep indeed, but few looked beyond the results and the matches because it was supposed to be a contest between two minnows. The cricket world noticed the progress made by this young Bangladesh team in the ICC World Cup in March 2015, which was played in Australia and New Zealand. They were supposed to go out in the group stage from a pool comprising the co-hosts along with England and Sri Lanka. They were expected to beat the Afghanistan and Scotland, that’s it. And it indeed started as per the plan, as Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by 105 runs in their World Cup opener. In the next, they got lucky as their match against Australia was washed out due to rain, giving them a valuable point on the way. Expectedly they lost to Sri Lanka (by 92 runs), and then went on to beat Scotland by six wickets.

What happened in the next match must have boosted their confidence to bring them to the level they are today. The next match was essential for England and Bangladesh both as they both needed to win this match to qualify for quarter-finals but to everyone’s surprise, it was Bangladesh who won that match to proceed further in the tournament. Although they lost against India in the next match still it was a memorable moment for Bangladesh Cricket team and their fans.
This was the just start of the rise of just a month later they won the ODI and T20 series against Pakistan to make their journey more interesting. After this series, they won 2-1 against India in the ODI series but lost a T20 series against South Africa. To mark their comeback they won the ODI series against South Africa. The next big stage for Bangladesh was Asia Cup where they won three matches in the group stage against UAE, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. They created another memorable moment for their fans as they qualified for the 2016 T20 World Cup but it was the short-lived glory as they lost all of their matches in the group stage.

This was just the start of bad time for Bangladesh as they lost all matches (3 ODI, 3 T20s, 1 Test) on the tour of New Zealand. After this, they drew an ODI and T20 series against Sri Lanka. Drawing the series against Sri Lanka was a deciding point for the future of Bangladesh as they have lost back to back series. The most important victory for the team was against New Zealand on 24 May 2017 which helped them to claim the number six rank in the ODIs.
With this ranking, they qualified for the Champions Trophy and to add much more they are now in the semi-finals. Bangladesh Cricket team is on a path to make their team much stronger than they are today. The current Bangladesh team is full of self-belief and confidence oozes out from its every single member. Unlike the previous decade, when Bangladesh struggled to put together a decent team, this one is full of match-winners. Till some time back Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mashrafe Mortaza, and Mushfiqur Rahim were all they had, and one of them failing resulted in team’s loss. But there has been a revolution of sorts in the cricket-crazy country and the likes of Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed and Mahmudullah have all come up of late and done brilliantly. This is just a start of the long journey for Bangladesh.