The bubble has burst!

Bangladesh cricket team suffered yet another defeat in the ICC T20 World Cup, and this time, it was after they narrowly escaped their lowest ever total in Twenty20 internationals.

Bangladesh were all-out for only 84 runs, surviving 18.2 overs against South Africa at Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, where only three batsmen managed to move into double figures.

The lack of ability among the batsmen was clearly visible as they looked hapless against the raw pace of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje.

Before leaving the country for the ICC T20 World Cup, Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad gave a number of interviews to various media outlets.

In his interviews, he kept saying that Bangladesh had a very good chance in this T20 World Cup as they are going with the confidence of winning three straight T20I series.

Bangladesh defeated Zimbabwe 2-1 in a three-match T20I series in Zimbabwe, then won the five-match T20I series against Australia  4-1, and finally won another five-match series against New Zealand 3-2.

The pseudo-success from winning against below-par or second-string teams ballooned the confidence among Bangladesh cricketers and team management staff, which popped in the T20 World Cup.

Bangladesh started their campaign with a defeat to Scotland in their opening match of the preliminary round. And later on, they struggled against Oman.

Their only convincing performance came against Papua New Guinea, a side playing in the World Cup for the first time.

Besides poor batting outings, Bangladesh were also very lethargic in the field, dropping nine catches in the World Cup so far.

Apart from matches against Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh struggled to post a decent total, a chronic disease they carried from home.

In the five-match series between Bangladesh and Australia, the highest team total was 131, which proved more than enough as the inexperienced Australians struggled on the slow and low pitches of Sher-E-Bangla Stadium.

The same theory of success was applied against New Zealand right after the Australia series, where the result only changed to 3-2. But the last two matches were warning bells which the players and the officials were busy celebrating.

Bangladesh head coach Russel Domingo accused the media in a press conference of posing a negative mindset.

“It’s very frustrating continuously reading about the negative articles about Bangladesh cricket team and why you guys say it’s not a very good T20 team is beyond me. I think we have got wonderful players, and I am sure there is room for improvement,” Domingo said ahead of the series against Australia.

”I think if you look at the team’s win rate over the last 12 months in T20 cricket, it’s been fantastic. We’ve won some big series., But I feel the team has progressed immensely from being ranked No. 11 in the world to being ranked No. 6. It is a big achievement for Bangladesh cricket, the highest they’ve been in,” Domingo told the media in the press conference before facing South Africa.

But hardly anything positive was there as Bangladesh performed shambolically throughout the tournament.

They dropped to the ninth position in the rankings due to the losses, and the confidence from winning three series did not show during the World cup.

From dropping catches to poor shoot selection, from irresponsible batting to improper choice of words during the press conferences, Bangladesh cricketers did everything on and off the field.

Skipper Mahmudullah, before leaving the country, told The Business Post in an interview, “We expect to do really well in this World Cup, especially because we have played some good cricket during the last few months. We have won three back-to-back series, which will give us that winning confidence to go in this World Cup. We will try to play some attacking, aggressive cricket over there and try to win games.”

But his side failed to secure a win in any of their matches so far in the Super 12 round, rather they lost to Scotland.

Even other cricketers like Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim also showed high hopes.

Since Covid-19 broke out and the world has changed, the cricketers are kept inside a ‘bio-secure bubble’ to isolate them from virus infection.

Likewise, the Bangladesh cricket team might have been living inside another bubble, created by the false sense of confidence that came from winning against sub-par teams on an unlike T20 surface, with the presence of two local umpires.

But when the Tigers faced the oppositions in their true form in a World Cup, the difference was visible as it showed their true colour as the bubble was burst.