With Afghanistan making it to the semifinal of T20 World Cup 2024, the Bangladesh cricket team has come under intense scrutiny for consistently underperforming in ICC World Cups across various formats. This year’s World Cup added another chapter to that saga as Bangladesh, despite a promising start, failed to make an impact when it mattered the most.
Bangladesh began strong, advancing from a competitive group consisting of South Africa, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Netherlands to the Super 8 round. However, their journey took a downward spiral thereafter as they couldn’t secure a single victory in the Super 8 stage. The most glaring failure was their inability to chase down a modest target of 116 runs, later adjusted to 114, against Afghanistan—a defeat that attracted considerable criticism from fans and experts alike.
Returning home to Dhaka after the disappointing campaign, Bangladesh vice-captain Taskin Ahmed addressed the media, shedding light on the reasons behind the team’s poor performance in the mega event. “The seniors’ off-form had an effect on the team but not off the field. They are great team men. We stayed as a team for 47 days. Everything was fine off the field. It is quite normal that a team will have problems when important players are not in form. I am hopeful that we can recover from this and play better soon,” Taskin said.
The vice-captain’s comments have opened a window into the team’s internal dynamics, emphasizing that the off-field environment was not a contributing factor to their disappointing performance. Instead, Taskin highlighted that the key issue lay in the seniors’ lack of form. The team’s batting lineup, in particular, has been under the scanner. The top three batsmen struggled throughout the tournament, with Litton Das hitting the only fifty in their final Super 8 game against Afghanistan.
“Our batting failed to click, which is why we could not win the games that were within our reach. The conditions in the USA were challenging for all batting line-ups, not just ours. However, our struggles were more prolonged and severe,” Taskin lamented. “I haven’t seen such a long bad patch for the batters in my ten years playing for Bangladesh. I hope it goes away quickly.
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Towhid Hridoy emerged as Bangladesh’s top performer with the bat, accumulating 153 runs at a strike rate of 128.57. Yet the seasoned campaigners like Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah couldn’t live up to the expectations, which added to the team’s woes.
Taskin acknowledged the widespread challenges faced by all teams in the tournament due to the bowler-friendly conditions. “When you talk about the batting, if you look at the statistics, I think every [teams’] batting department suffered in the USA this time. Bowlers got a lot of help. We got better [batting] wickets in the West Indies,” he said.
Adding context to this, related stories from the cricket world reflected similar challenges for other teams and players. For example, Shafali Verma smashed the fastest double hundred in women’s Test cricket history, and Rohit Sharma remained unconcerned about Virat Kohli’s poor form in the T20 World Cup, perhaps indicating a broader trend affecting several top players. Additionally, the Indian team shattered all-time team records in both men’s and women’s Test cricket on Day 1 against South Africa, showing that form can be an elusive and unpredictable element in international cricket.
Despite the disappointing outcome, Taskin focused on staying positive about the future. “The seniors’ off-form had an effect on the team but not off the field. They are great team men. We stayed as a team for 47 days. Everything was fine off the field,” Taskin reiterated, underscoring the point that team unity and cohesion remained intact.
“We have a talented group of players, and the off-form of key players impacted us significantly. Nonetheless, we will take the lessons learned from this World Cup and come back stronger in the next tournaments. Cricket is a game of uncertainties and cycles of form, and I am confident in our team’s ability to bounce back,” Taskin concluded.
As Bangladesh look forward to rebuilding and strategizing for upcoming cricketing challenges, the emphasis will likely be on addressing the batting inconsistencies and finding solutions to critical on-field situations. Moving ahead, the cricketing world will be keenly watching to see if Bangladesh can break their pattern of underperformance and deliver on their potential in future ICC events.
