Bangladesh Cricket Team

 Bangladesh Cricket Team

The Bangladesh cricket team represents Bangladesh as the national cricket team in international cricket.  

 They are also known as Tigers or Bengal Tigers. Bangladesh Cricket Board manages this team. 

 

 Bangladesh is one of the permanent member countries of ICC Test and One Day International status Since 1997, Bangladesh cricket team has been playing ODIs as an ICC ODI player. On 26 June 2000, they  As of 25 February 2020, they have played a total of 119 Test matches and have won 14 matches.   They won their first Test against Zimbabwe.  

 

Coach: Chandika Hathurusingha (Head Coach)   

Captain: Shakib Al Hasan  

The player  

Shakib Al Hasan All-rounder  

Mehdi Hasan All-rounder  

Liton Das Wicket-keeper  

Mahmudul Hasan Joy batsman  

 

Nickname: Bengal Tigers,  

Tigers Association, Bangladesh Cricket Board,    

Test captain, Shakib Al Hasan,  

ODI captain, Tamim Iqbal,  

T20I captain, Shakib Al Hasan,  

Bangladesh cricket team has been playing ODIs as an ICC ODI playing country. On 26 June 2000 they became the tenth Test playing nation to gain ICC membership. As of 25 February 2020, they have played a total of 119 Test matches and have won 14 matches. They won their first Test against Zimbabwe.

They won the next two Tests against the West Indies. As of April, 2023,

Bangladesh is ranked 9th in Tests, 7th in ODIs and 9th in Twenty20

Internationals according to the ICC rankings. ODI status achieved: 1997 Saletest status achieved: 2000. 

Banglawash

2010: The series between Bangladesh and New Zealand will forever be known among the Bangladesh cricket fraternity for being called a "Banglawash" – a series where Bangladesh clean swept the opponent, winning all the matches. What the television commentators started to say after Bangladesh had won the One Day International series 4-0, caught on to the rest of the media and the fans and remains one of Bangladesh's biggest achievements in cricket, and especially in 2010. The win was all the more sweeter given that Shakib Al Hasan was not part of the team when the Tigers defeated the Kiwis on home soil and it took a complete team effort. It was also the series where fast bowler Rubel Hossain really made a mark on the international scene with his pace and wicket-taking ability.

 World Cup 

2011: This was a World Cup that was special for Bangladesh cricket, especially because they would be jointly hosting it and they had the honour of hosting the opening ceremony. It was a spectacular ceremony that beautifully depicted the beauty and the culture of the country and to this day remains one of the best opening ceremonies as far as sports events go. The performance for the Tigers on the field was however a mixed bag as they lost the opening game against India by a big margin and also were dismissed for cheap totals against West Indies and

South Africa. The performance against West Indies – one of the teams Bangladesh were expected to do well against – was so poor that fans hurled bricks at the West Indies team bus, although those were aimed at the Bangladesh team bus. Their big win came against England in Cartogram where

Mahmudullah and Sheffield Islam formed a brilliant partnership to win from the jaws of defeat, but the win was not enough to help Bangladesh qualify through to the quarter finals.

Asia Cup

2012: After what was a disappointing 2011 World Cup, the Asia Cup in 2012 was a big step in the right direction for Bangladesh cricket. It was one where the team really started to gel well and perform as a strong ODI unit. They defeated the likes of India and Sri Lanka on the way to the final and looked poised for the trophy when they faced Pakistan in the final at Mirpur. However as fate would have it, it was one of the biggest heartbreaks for the team and the country as they failed to score nine runs off the last over bowled by Aizaz Cheema. The loss hurt even more as accomplished batsman Mahmudullah was at the crease in the final over and one would have expected him to score the runs and create Bangladesh's biggest cricketing achievement.

 

2013: Mohammad Ashraful cries after pleading guilty to illegal fixing during the Bangladesh Premier League.

Ashraful Fixing 

2013: This was the year when Mohammad Ashraful cried after being caught for illegal fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), and with him, made all his fans and the cricketing fraternity cry in shock and despair. Ashraful would later be served a ban from all forms of cricket. It would be the loss of innocence of a country that was not known for such activities in the cricketing world and was just starting to take its cricket in the right direction. It was also a watershed moment as Ashraful was the poster boy of Bangladesh cricket and was expected to lead the team with his batting for years to come. What was all the more shocking were the revelations by those close to Ashraful – including teammates wanting anonymity – saying that he had been involved in fixing for many other matches and a lot of his dismissals during batting were as a result such fixing.

T20 World Cup disaster

2014: Bangladesh were never a very good Twenty20 side but this was the lowest of lows for the side during the T20I World Cup, that too on home soil. While the tournament started well for them with wins of Afghanistan and Nepal, the big shocker came when they faced Hong Kong and were all out for just 108 runs. Hong Kong would eventually chase down the total and that would go down as one of the most embarrassing moments in Bangladesh's cricket history. From there Bangladesh went on to lose all their second group stage matches against West Indies, India, Pakistan and Australia to finish bottom of their group. In fact,

Bangladesh played 10 T20I's in 2014 and lost seven, won two with one match being washed out – a truly forgettable year for the team in the shortest format of the game.      

 

Mustafizur Rahman is hoisted by his teammates after Bangladesh won the ODI series against india in 2015.

Bangladesh's greatest year 

2015: This was the year were the rise of the Tigers well and truly happened. It all started off with the World Cup where Bangladesh shone by knocking out England and reaching the quarter finals of the tournament for the first time in their history. Then they would follow up with ODI series wins of India, Pakistan and even South Africa at home and really established themselves as a dominant force at home. Led by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza along with the likes of Shakib Al hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, it was a side ready to take on any team at home and beat them. Then there was the rise of fast bowlers Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed along with the swashbuckling batting of Soumya Sarkar and Bangladesh had themselves a team with an excellent mix of youth and experience. It was the year when the cricketing world finally stopped rating Bangladesh as minnows or underdogs and took them as an elite ODI team, capable of beating anyone at home.

 

2016: Mehidy Hasan Miraz is all smiles after becoming man of the match and the series in the Test series against England.

Beating England in a Test 

2016: While the ODI series against England at home was a disappointing one, which Bangladesh lost, after the high of the series wins against India, Pakistan and South Africa, 2016 brought Bangladesh cricket another star in the making – Mehidy Hasan Miraz. The off-spinner was lethal with the new ball for the home side and caused the English batsmen all sorts of trouble. While Bangladesh lost their first Test in Cartogram after coming agonisingly close to victory, they ensured they defeated the mighty English team in Mirpur. Batting first, Bangladesh scored 220 on a turning track where only Tamim Iqbal (104) and

Mominul Haque (66) contributed with the bat before a massive collapse from 171-1 to 220 all out. England then managed to score 244 in reply and took a small but handy 24-run lead. From there, Bangladesh dug in again as Tamim Iqbal (40), Imrul Kayes (78), Mahmudullah (47) and Shakib Al hasan (41) all chipped in with the bat to score 296 and set England a decent target of 273 runs. In reply, England were cruising with captain Alastair Cook and Ben Duckett both scoring fifties and putting up a 100-run partnership. But then in came Miraz and Shakib and the duo started to make the ball talk as the English batsmen were flummoxed and bamboozled and they eventually collapsed in a session to 164 all out. The win was assured along with Bangladesh's biggest achievement in Test cricket till then.

 

2017: Mahmudullah lets out a roar after Bangladesh win against New Zealand to qualify for the Champions Trophy semifinal.

Reaching the Champions Trophy semi 

2017: Bangladesh had a point to prove in the international arena after having a successful World Cup in 2015 along with their growing reputation in ODI's. A lot of that was achieved in the Champions Trophy in 2017 at England but the tournament did not start well for the Tigers. They lost the first match against England and would have lost the second match to Australia too, if rain hadn't intervened and divided the points among both teams. The third match against New Zealand was a topsy-turvy affair and both teams had advantage over the other in different points in the match. The Kiwis looked set for a 300-plus total but then Mashrafe brought in part-time bowler Mosaddek Hossain and he took the key wickets of Neil Broom, Jimmy Neesham and Corey Anderson to stymie the flow of runs and keep New Zealand to 265-8 after 50 overs. In reply, Bangladesh were almost out of the game in the first ten overs losing Tamim Iqbal for a duck while Soumya Sarkar scored just three and Sabbir Rahman departed for eight. Bangladesh were 12-3, and things got even worse when Mushfiqur Rahim was out for 14 and Bangladesh slipped to 33-4. But then

Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah formed of the greatest ever partnerships in Bangladesh cricket history as Shakib scored 114 and Mahmudullah scored 102 to take the team to 257 before Shakib was dismissed. Mahmudullah ensured the remaining runs were scored, along with Mosaddek to take the Tigers to their first ever semifinal in the Champions Trophy.

 

2018: The Bangladesh women celebrate after winning the Asia Cup.

Women's team wins the Asia Cup

 

2018: While the men have played in many Asia Cup finals and have lost every single time, and are yet to win an Asia Cup, the women showed how it's done. They defeated India in a tight contest in the final to help Bangladesh cricket achieve its maiden trophy in a multi-team tournament. Bangladesh had to defeat higher-ranked Sri Lanka and Pakistan on the way to the final although they had lost against India in the group stages. In the final however Salma Khatun and co kept India down to a score of 112-9 in 20 overs. In reply, Bangladesh were losing wickets regularly but did not let that bog them down and the asking rate never went too high. In the last over, nine runs were required with Rumana Ahmed and Sanjida Islam batting. Sanjida took a single off the first ball but then Rumana scored a boundary in the next for make it four runs needed off four balls. Rumana took a single in the third ball to make it three required from three. But then Sanjida and Rumana were out in the next two balls and the equation was two runs required off the last ball, which Jahanara Alam managed to score and script a momentous victory.

Shakib-gate

2019: A year to forget for Bangladesh on and off the field. After a poor tour of

New Zealand where the team lost all the matches they won the tri-nation series in

Ireland against the hosts and West Indies. But then it was a disappointing World Cup campaign where Bangladesh failed to advance from the group stage and their only star was Shakib Al Hasan with both bat and ball. However that Shakib would be mired in controversy and eventually be banned from all forms of international cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit for up to two years. He was caught for having WhatsApp conversations with an Indian bookie Deepak Agarwal where Awarwal approached him for illegal fixing. While there is no evidence of Shakib paying heed to Agarwal's messages, the fact that he failed to inform the cricket board or the ICC after multiple approaches was a breach in the ICC's laws and resulted in a two year ban. When Shakib admitted to his fault, the ban was reduced to one year. The year also had Bangladesh having a miserable time in Test cricket as they lost at home against Afghanistan and also lost meekly against India in India and inbetween there was an ODI tour of Sri Lanka, where Bangladesh were also whitewashed.