Bangladesh aim to maintain momentum in T20Is

Following dominating performances in the lone Test match, three-ODI series and two T20Is, the Tigers are looking to maintain the momentum gained from the just concluded bilateral home series against Zimbabwe.

Batsmen got runs, majority of the bowlers performed well and most importantly, Bangladesh’s displays were clinical, which can be termed as a glaring positive, despite the opponent being lower ranked Zimbabwe.

As expected, the Tigers dominated both the T20Is, defeating Zimbabwe convincingly.

With that said, Bangladesh need to perform like this more often in order to become a competitive side heading into the World T20I in Australia later this year.

Currently, Bangladesh are sitting in ninth position in the T20I ranking and have to negotiate the qualifiers to qualify for the main event.

After taking up the captaincy baton from Shakib al Hasan, Mahmudullah’s T20I side faced some ups and downs in the shortest format.

When Mahmudullah took charge of the T20I side prior to the challenging away tour against India, Bangladesh cricket was in turmoil owing to many off-the-field incidents, like the players’ strike and the Shakib ban imposed by the International Cricket Council.

@BCBtigers opening batsman Liton Das has informed that more focus and determination are the reasons behind his brilliant run of form with the bat in the recent past.https://t.co/XARmpZeVeS#BCBTIGERS #BCB #TIGERS #BANGLADESHCRICKET #BANGLADESH #CRICKET #ZIMBABWECRICKET #ZIMBABWE

— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) March 11, 2020

Since then, Bangladesh have played seven T20Is, winning thrice.

The men in red and green stunned India in their backyard last November in Mahmudullah’s first match in charge.

The win did come against a second string Indian side as most of their major players were rested but still, a victory against India in India amid such uncertainty was a boost.

The T20I series was up for grabs but Bangladesh couldn’t capitalize as India eventually took the honors 2-1.

The two T20Is away to Pakistan was a big letdown as Bangladesh were unable to go past 145 on good batting tracks.

Bangladesh made some changes in the batting order in the Pakistan T20Is but it didn’t really work out.

A dominating series win against Zimbabwe in all formats therefore, gave the Bangladesh think tank some food for thought as the team management is pondering the best XI with the World T20I just a few months away.

@BCBtigers completed a memorable bilateral home series against @ZimCricketv, making a clean sweep of the visiting side in all three formats, this time in the two-match T20I series.https://t.co/wn0H8kR0Mk#BCBTIGERS #BCB #TIGERS #BANGLADESHCRICKET #BANGLADESH #CRICKET #ZIMBABWE

— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) March 11, 2020

Prior to the Zimbabwe T20Is, Mahmudullah confirmed that as a captain, he wants to fix a plan with regards to the tactics and strategies. 

It was more or less evident in the Zimbabwe T20Is as the usual suspects in the batting order shone brightly.

In the end, Zimbabwe were no match for Bangladesh in the whole series and their bowling attack was perhaps the weakest the Tigers have encountered in recent times, but the men in red and green can draw some positive outputs.

And one of them was the way Bangladesh played their cricket, with attacking and positive intent.

After the series sweep, Mahmudullah said the Tigers now need to continue this attitude and performance in the field against the big teams as they look forward to the World T20I.

“Our recent performances were not upto mark. So we wanted to come back strong in this series. As a group of players, we were focused in every step and thus, we got the success. I think looking forward, firstly we will take positive attitude from this series, then the collective performance. After the Pakistan T20Is we had a chat ourselves why we are playing like this as we know, we are a far better team compared to how we played against Pakistan. Definitely we had some lackings in those matches. So in this series, we decided to become more focused with our performance, and we performed well,” said Mahmudullah.  

“In future we have to remind ourselves that we can play this type of dominating cricket. We have got results in our way this series, next series might be more tough and we have to have the belief that we can play attacking and dominating cricket. So our target is to play good cricket and perform consistently against big teams in this format,” he added.  

Bangladesh’s next T20I series will be against Ireland and England this May.