Recently, Bangladesh have beaten Zimbabwe and West Indies in two successive home series. They were superb in all formats of cricket against both teams. Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes said: “We have been playing really good cricket, especially in ODIs. We hope that will continue in coming days.”
Three-match T20I series against West Indies was the last series for the Tigers where they finished on the losing side. In the first match of the series, Bangladesh were beaten by the Caribbeans pace and bounce at Sylhet International Stadium. Shakib Al Hasan and his team lost the match by 36 runs.
But in the second match, the hosts made a strong comeback thanks to Shakib Al Hasan’s unbelievable all-round performance of scoring 42 and taking his first-ever five-for in T20Is. The Tigers got a golden chance to register another triumph against the Caribbeans in the series decider but they failed. In the third and final T20I, Bangladesh lost the momentum after a horrible mistake of a Bangladeshi umpire, Tanvir Ahmed, who called for a no-ball assuming over-stepped delivery of Oshane Thomas. But the TV replay showed that was a legal delivery.
West Indian players saw the ball through in the giant screen which is installed in the middle of the gallery and asked for a review even though there is no Player Review for such an instance. The incident delayed the match for about 10 minutes which broke the concentration and stole the momentum from them as well. And eventually, Bangladesh lost the match by a big margin of 50 runs.
Apart from T20I series defeat, Bangladesh had a successful outing against West Indies. But prior to the T20I series, Bangladesh beat the touring side in Test and ODI.
“The performance we have shown in back-to-back two home series against Zimbabwe and West Indies was completely satisfactory,” Said Minhajul Abedin, the chief selector of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
“I think we have got a balanced squad as we did well in all three departments. We have to play in New Zealand in the next series and I hope the experience of winning two home series at the end of 2018 will help us in the forthcoming series. I believe our boys are more matured now,” Minhajul further added while talking to the media recently.
Despite losing the first Test against Zimbabwe in Sylhet, the Tigers proved their red-ball improvement winning the next three Tests. One of them was against Zimbabwe and the other two were against the Windies.
Bangladesh were completely ahead of West Indies in two-match Test series against the Caribbeans. Mahmudullah Riyad, Mominul Haque hit two centuries in the series and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam were superb against the touring batsmen. Shadman Islam, the young opener, also justified his place in the Test team hitting a fifty in debut.
“We have got many reasons to be happy in the series against West Indies. Some of the senior guys were out of form. But in the last series, they backed to their best which is really satisfactory. And some young guys played their role correctly which have made our squad more balanced. Now we can look at the next series against New Zealand which is really important for us,” Minhajul said about the performance of during West Indies series.
Tamim Iqbal made a comeback with the ODI series against West Indies and hit two fifties. Along with Tamim, Mushfiqur, Soumya and Shakib performed will beat the Windies in an ODI series for the second time in the year.
Despite the expected success of the batsmen, lack of form of pace bowlers was a big concern for the hosts. But Steve Rhodes, the Bangladesh coach, hopes the pacers will get chance to hone their power during the New Zealand tour.
Overall, the West Indies series was a successful assignment for the Tigers in the last series of the year. Now they are optimistic to carry their golden run ahead in the international circuit.