2015: The year the Asian Tigers growled

The Tigers beat top teams at home this year

Just about a decade ago, Bangladesh held a dubious record of most consecutive Test defeats, spanning over a period of 3 years, and were also clearly the worst ODI side in the early 2000s.

Fast forward to 2015 and things have turned dramatically for ‘the Tigers’. They are no longer dubbed as the minnows of international cricket. Ever since scoring that famous win over Australia in the Natwest Series back in 2005, Bangladesh have improved their game by many folds and have beaten top ranked teams more often in major tournaments.

However, their real glory and success came in 2015, beginning with the World Cup down under, followed by famous home series wins against top ranked teams including South Africa and India.

In the World Cup, if their wins over Afghanistan and Scotland seemed obvious, their famous triumph over England in Adelaide to knock them out of the tournament, was special. On account of this win, Bangladesh qualified for the quarter-final of the World Cup for the first time, where they eventually lost to their neighbours India.

Soon after the end of the World Cup, Bangladesh hosted Pakistan for a brief series comprising of 3 ODIs, 1 T20 and 2 Test matches. To everyone’s utter surprise, the home team managed to rout the visitors 3-0 in the ODI series and also emerged victorious in the lone T20I.

However, Pakistan managed to dominate the Test series and eventually squeezed a 1-0 win.

After their dominating limited-overs performance against Pakistan, Bangladesh continued to impress one and all, after they beat a strong Indian side 2-1 in the three-match ODI series, to extract sweet revenge for their World Cup loss.

Their infectious habit of winning at home continued when they stunned South Africa with yet another scoreline of 2-1. The Tigers then finished their year with a clinical 5-0 whitewash against Zimbabwe.

With their impressive form, most major teams will now be wary of their steady rise in cricket. For the ever-animated Bangladeshi supporters, there is more reason to cheer on, as their team have now officially qualified for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, which includes the 8 best teams in world cricket.

Former players like Mohammed Ashraful, Habibul Bashar, Khaled Mahmud and Alok Kapali among others, who had laid a solid foundation for future cricketers, will be immensely proud of the progress of the current generation.

The present bunch of brave youngsters, led by Bangladesh's greatest all-rounder Shakib al Hasan, are hungry for more success, and with the right attitude, a first ICC Trophy in any form isn’t far from their reach.

Young guns like Mustafizur Rehman, Taskin Ahmed and Soumya Sarkar have a major task ahead of them in terms of maintaining consistency at the top most level.

On Bangladesh's Test promotion in 1999, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had famously remarked, “I can't express my joy in words at this happiest hour of the nation". With the current form of the cricket team, it won’t be far ahead in the future, before she repeats her statement.