Abdullah Al Mehdi

Just a few hours before the first T20I between Bangladesh and New Zealand began yesterday, Tamim Iqbal, who had been missing in action from the T20I line-up for the past 17 months, went live from his Facebook page and announced that he will not be available for the upcoming T20 World Cup in UAE.

Bangladesh gear up for another T20I series without star batsman Tamim Iqbal but there is the air of him being there regardless, largely due to the fact that the that left-hander is battling injury issues ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup in two months’ time.

A fascinating but by no means unproblematic trend in Bangladesh cricket, one that has existed for some time, is how players make their back into the national side because others have performed badly. As in a game of musical chairs, players circle back into the team, but the problem in terms of team selection is how many players return without having performed in order to stake a claim.

The historic 4-1 series win against Australia was the Tigers’ most significant series win in the T20 format, considered to be Bangladesh’s Achilles heel.

Bangladesh ended the series as they began, dominating proceedings with the ball as they condemned Australia to their lowest-ever T20I score of 62 all out to clinch the five-match series 4-1 with Shakib Al Hasan cleaning up the tail.

Even amidst the most bizarre realities in football, it just does not get any more bizarre than this. With the world watching, the press conference that transpired at the Camp Nou yesterday, was about to puncture hopes -- the last shred of it anyway -- and leave Barcelona fans with a gaping vacuum with nowhere to escape.

Pacer Mustafizur Rahman was the saviour yesterday, helping Bangladesh complete a remarkable turnaround from a trying situation as they trumped Australia by 10 runs in the third T20I, in the process clinching their first ever series win over the men from down under.

“Man, he is a difficult customer. He is really good,” Ashton Agar said while wearing a smile that recognised that his side had its work cut out in dealing with Mustafizur Rahman’s cutters. Even for a spinner like Agar, it was something different.

Youngsters Afif Hossain and Nurul Hasan showed nerves of steel to propel Bangladesh from a difficult situation to their second successive win against Australia in the five-match series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

A nervy atmosphere had gripped the final moments of the Copa America final but as soon as the clock had stopped, Lionel Messi sank to his knees, his fists pumping the air as teammates rushed in to plunge into euphoria alongside him.

Mahmudullah Riyad’s Test career might be seeing a reversal of fortunes after a determined century against Zimbabwe was instrumental to Bangladesh being able to reverse their own fate in the ongoing one-off Test at Harare.

Nurul Hasan Sohan’s form this season in the Bangabandhu Premier Division League saw him earn a well-deserved call-up for the national team in all three formats for their upcoming tour of Zimbabwe, but given the lack of faith from the selectors in the past, question remains whether Sohan’s present form can make a difference this time.

With a cyclone hovering over the Bay of Bengal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Bangladesh’s most experienced batsman in ODIs with the greatest number of matches under his belt, battled and steered his team through a very different kind of storm, finding the calm and assurance that Bangladesh most needed from his bat. Mushfiqur’s 127-ball 125, while running out of partners, accounted for more than half the team’s runs and helped the Tigers post a challenging 246 after electing to bat first.

That Bangladesh cricket is resigned to talking about individuals over team building and governing ideas of their cricket speaks to the greater culture now omnipresent over the course of a decade or so but is more prominent across the last few years.

There was no display of effort, perseverance or mental grind befitting of Test cricket by the Tigers in their defeat to Sri Lanka in the second Test in Kandy yesterday, and the sphere of their failures has a lot more to it than the margin of defeat inflicted by the hosts.

The Bangladesh spinners have time and again failed to make any real impact in matches, especially in the longest format, when the pitches are not conducive to spin. With no real variations to keep batsmen guessing, spinners regurgiate the 'tagline' of maintaining line and length, but to what extent it works in their favour, remains a big question.

The most important facet in all of Bangladesh’s major victories in international cricket is that the whole team contributed, no matter the size.

Dark clouds are hovering above Bangladesh Cricket for the past few days following the whitewash inflicted on the Tigers by the West Indies.

Looking on from the other side of the West Indies heist in the final day of the Chattogram Test, it would be easy to question the quality or capabilities of Bangladesh’s Test side.

The year 2020 in the sporting calendar had been a remarkable one due to the challenges facing sporting events all over the world.