Tigers aim at clean sweep

Bangladesh national cricket team will be aiming at a clean sweep in the third match of their three-match One-Day International series against West Indies on Saturday as they are already 2-0 up in the series.

Bangladesh won the first ODI comfortably by six wickets before completely dominating the hosts in the second ODI to pick up a nine-wicket win.

The wins have handed Bangladesh their fourth-consecutive series win over West Indies and fifth overall. Since Tamim was appointed captain, Bangladesh have won six out of their seven series.

What would be concerning for Bangladesh ahead of the third match though, is their consistent failure to end the series on a high. They have had two series in the recent past where they were 2-0 ahead and failed to win the final game.

In 2021, Bangladesh sealed their three-match series against Sri Lanka at home with two wins from the first two matches but proceeded to lose the last one. This year, they repeated the same thing against Afghanistan at home.

Those two matches have cost Bangladesh 20 points in the ICC ODI Super League, though they don’t have to worry about that against the Caribbeans as the ongoing series is not a part of the ongoing qualifying process for the 2023 World Cup.

And as that is the case, while their wish to achieve a clean sweep remains intact, Bangladesh might opt to test their bench strength, which was suggested by their skipper Tamim after the second ODI.

“We must test our bench strength. This is one thing which we do rarely in Bangladesh cricket. Obviously, we want to win every match, but sometimes it is important to test the bench, especially in ODIs.

“Normally when qualification points are involved, there is no scope for experiments. But when we are playing such a series (which is not part of the ODI Super League), and we are 2-0 up, we should give chances to those who generally don’t play,” Tamim said.

Three players are yet to play a match in this series- Taijul Islam, Anamul Haque, and Ebadot Hossain. All three might come in alongside Taskin Ahmed, who was dropped from the second ODI.

Tamim hinted that he might bench himself to give Anamul a chance, and if that happens, Liton Das is the likely candidate to take up the armband.

Except for Tamim, Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam might be given a rest with Taskin and Ebadot coming in, while Taijul might get a shot instead of Nasum Ahmed, who had his ODI debut in this series.

Bangladesh’s strength have been their bowling this series as the Caribbeans scored 149-9 in the first ODI, and were bowled out for 108 in the second. The Tigers, although they will have a different bowling lineup, will aim at doing the same in the third ODI.

For West Indies, another defeat in the third ODI will mean their sixth loss in six ODIs. They lost three ODIs against Pakistan before this series and have not shown up with the bat at all in this series.

That frustration was visible in their skipper’s words after the second ODI.

“Tough, tough day. I don’t want to talk about it. We didn’t show up as a batting group. For sure, we need to talk about how we are going to play ODI cricket, especially as a batting group and figure it out soon,” Nicholas Pooran said.