Is it the same Bangladesh team which forced India first round exit in the previous edition of 2007-ICC World Cup? I still remember that match of 17th march I was waiting eagerly for India’s first match of the world cup campaign. The bright and sunny weather turned out to be a dark and gloomy cricket match for 1 billion masses of India. None of the batting guns fired or bowler also showed a dismal performance forming a solid foundation of early exit of India. At that time I thought that Bangladesh has finally evolved from the minnows tag and even granting the status of test playing nation to it was justified.
Again the Cricket fiesta has started and just after a major hiccup of England getting a taste of Irish Curry, we see another strange game. The day night match between Bangladesh and West Indies ending in daylight only. But the more strange aspect was the same team which recently got the better of Ireland in a crunch match suffered a major setback now. Bangla tigers seemed totally down and outplayed in their 3rd encounter of world cup. Now they face a Herculean task of defeating England, South Africa and Dutch to seal their fate in the Quarter finals. This daunting task would require the Bangla Tigers to bat their skins our and bowl their heart out.
Looking at the match, more than 20,000 visitors came to watch their heroes hitting sixes and taking wickets against the Caribbean’s. The Bangladeshi player did not look like playing an international match, it was more like gully cricket for them. Coming and playing ruthless shots and going back to pavilion. It seemed they were coming only to mark their attendance in the match. None of them looked like playing responsibly for the team. Siddique played some shots and tried to adapt to the wicket and the conditions but he was also trapped LBW. There was nothing like pitch ghost in the match. Instead of getting the advantage of playing in the home ground they gave away all the credit to a disciplined bowling performance. On the other hand Windies men meant business since the word go. They bowled in the right areas to each bangle batsman and got rewarded for the same. The question rises that is it correct to say that Bangladesh has evolved from the minnows tag or are they still having some major problems to look for. Today’s 4th lowest World Cup score and Lowest Score of Bangladesh has certainly raised some question over their team’s current practice and game level. Hope not to see such dismal performance from Bangladesh again and they validate their status of a Non-minnows correct.
