Chaotic year, calamitous year

Bangladesh’s first Twenty20 International of 2022 was a win but morning doesn’t always show the day, and so didn’t that win as they could only muster six wins in 21 matches, and saw both the captain and coach changed within the 12 months.

The year started with Mahmudullah Riyad leading the side and ended with Shakib Al Hasan. In between, Nurul Hasan Sohan and Mosaddek Hossain also held the mantle. In the coaching aspect, Russell Domingo was in charge of the team till their Zimbabwe tour in the middle of the year, before being excused from the duties in the shortest format, and Indian Sridharan Sriram took charge up until the T20 World Cup.

Bangladesh drew their opening T20I series of the year 1-1 with Afghanistan in March before losing the three-match T20I series against West Indies 2-0, which resulted in Mahmudullah losing his captaincy and his place in the team.

In Zimbabwe, Nurul took charge as Shakib did not play, and after he was injured following the second match of the three-match series, Mosaddek led the team in the final match and surprisingly Mahmudullah was brought back into the XI. Bangladesh lost the T20I series 2-1 by losing the first and third match.

Next came the Asia Cup, before which Domingo was relieved and Sriram appointed. Shakib came back as the T20I captain after almost three years.

Bangladesh had to head into the Asia Cup without premier batter Liton Das and promising pacer Hasan Mahmud.

Bangladesh nearly crawled out of their group but a defeat to Afghanistan in the opening match followed by a close defeat to eventual winners Sri Lanka, where the Tigers spilt several chances, meant they were out of the group stages.

Bangladesh, at this point, suffering from a serious lack of in-form openers, tried out an opening pair of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Sabbir Rahman, but it did not work and was scraped later on.

Bangladesh won a 2-0 series against UAE but then lost all four matches in their tri-nation series against New Zealand and Pakistan in their lead-up to the World Cup.

In the World Cup, the Tigers got off to a good start as they beat Netherlands, before plummeting to a 104-run defeat to South Africa.

Bangladesh then barely scraped a three-run win over Zimbabwe, meaning they had won two matches in the final stage of a T20 World Cup for the first time.

In the next game, Bangladesh went mighty close to India but failed to close out the game despite a magical innings from Liton, who scored 60 off just 27 balls, to succumb to a five-run defeat.

But South Africa’s defeat to Netherlands meant Bangladesh yet had a shot at reaching the semis and they only had to beat Pakistan.

Well, they failed. They were beaten by five wickets and that handed a year full of disappointments for the Tigers a fitting finish. Skipper Shakib, though, is confident of turning things around in 2023.

“Regarding the T20 team, we have reached a pretty good position. Within the next six months, I believe we can set up a team that will bring good results in the 2024 World Cup, even beyond our expectations and I think it’s a possibility and it should happen with their capacity,” he told the media.