After being outplayed by New Zealand in the ODI series, Bangladesh will now lock horns against the Kiwis for a three-match T20 series starting from tomorrow. Bangladesh will be led by Mashrafe Mortaza someone, who has been an inspiration for them for so many years now and the team will again look up to him for another inspired performance right at the start of the year.
In all the three ODI’s Bangladesh handed over the initiative to the opposition, especially in the third ODI where from being 102 for 1 they were bowled out for mere 236 when they had a chance to score close to 300. This had been Bangladesh’s feature throughout the last year where they have failed to seize upon the opportunity.
The T20 World Cup match against India immediately comes to mind when someone thinks of Bangladesh not making the most of their chances.
Also, their key players in Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib al Hasan lacked in terms of performance throughout the series. In terms of leading run scorers in the series, Tamim is placed fifth in the table with just 113 runs and Shakib being their premier spinner took just 5 wickets in the series.
The T20 series now presents the Tigers an excellent opportunity to turn the tables on the Kiwis and take a perfect revenge of their ODI series loss.
Bangladesh has been playing some decent T20 cricket in recent times and their progress till the semi finals of the 2016 edition of the World Cup speaks of their high aspirations as a cricket team in near future. They have a young squad and some promising players who can make a mark in international T20 cricket. The likes of Soumya Sarkar, Mustafizur Rahman can become their linchpin cricketers. Performance will be expected from these players in the upcoming series to understand where exactly do these cricketers stand in the future for Bangladesh cricket.
On the other hand buoyed by the ODI series win the Kiwis will be hoping for another professional performance in the T20 series and sweep it their way. In terms of experience Kiwis have a much more experienced side and the Bangladeshi side a bit weak on experience.
And this is where the beauty of the game lies. It will be an interesting series with Bangladesh going into it as the underdogs but could very well come out as the victorious side. An interesting series is lined up therefore in the very first week of a brand new year.
