Also read: Confident Tigers eye maiden T20I win over India
And this had come riding on their plan of playing the “Bangladesh brand of T20Is”, claimed different members of the side in the form of opener Tamim Iqbal and wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim with the last one being the stand-in captain Mahmudullah Tuesday. All echoed the same sentiment – the Tigers do not have impact players but rather, smart cricketers, as the Bangladesh team put it. Tamim had put the words in the best way possible following their emphatic win against the Lankans. "I believe it is one format where we can improve a lot. We might not have big power-hitters but we can plan and play a Bangladeshi brand of T20I cricket. We can't follow England, the West Indies or any leading T20I team because we have different kind of players. We don't have someone like MS Dhoni to come in at No 7. We don't have a Chris Gayle to take on the bowlers from the first ball. I think we have smart cricketers, who are different. It is not about hitting sixes and fours all the time. In the middle overs we saw that by taking a lot of singles, boundaries will come," Tamim had said a few days ago. And Monday, Mahmudullah on the occasion of taking on India in the second phase of the series, said, "We spoke about creating a Bangladesh brand of T20I cricket ahead of this tour. We need to be smart to take calculated risks, particularly taking on a bowler. This will give us the edge. We don't have the power hitters, which we need to address, but we need to be smart to carry out our skills."
The Tigers have not taken it just as a theory, rather they have started believing in the process. The side had a horrendous start to the series through a six-wicket defeat after Bangladesh batsmen failed to execute their plan. On the day they had looked out of place with the batsmen on most parts looking puzzled. However, within 48 hours the side bounced back against Sri Lanka through playing pure cricket. The batsmen chasing the massive total had not done anything fancy, like a Virat Kohli does for India or AB de Villiers for South Africa, but stuck to the basics and played proper cricketing shots.
Bangladesh Mushfiq had made the most impact in the game, putting on an unbeaten 35-ball 72 to inspire his side to victory. The right-hander had played a couple of reverse sweeps but majority of the runs he had scored had come from shots played according to the merit of the delivery.
However, only time will tell just how far Bangladesh have progressed in the shortest format playing their own brand of cricket and the first test of the Tigers’ credentials will be carried out by India Wednesday.