Did Bangladesh visualize them in the ICC T20 World Cup semifinal in their wildest dream?

Bangladesh national cricket team will arrive today after completing their T20 World Cup campaign but the question is raised following their timid approach against Afghanistan in their last Super 8 match of the ongoing tournament.

Bangladesh had a chance to make it into the last four courtesy of a brilliant performance by their bowling unit only to see it go in vain following the lack of intent by their batting unit.

It was not the first time the Bangladesh batting unit failed in this year’s  tournament but the way they reacted after reaching the Super 8 only suggested that they hardly dared to see them progressing far from the second phase of the tournament.

The bizarre mindset of head coach Chandika Hathurusingha and his charges

 It is true that big words don’t win you games but at the same time, if the aim is small, there is hardly any reason to go any further. Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha surely tried to lower the expectation from the shoulders by claiming that they have achieved their goal of reaching the Super 8 and anything they achieve in this phase is a bonus. The ploy boomeranged considering his statement was hugely criticized from different corners as it suggested it was an admission of the mindset the team is carrying.

Former Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud did not shy away from showing his disappointment when his attention was drawn by The Daily Sun on Thursday regarding the performance of the Bangladesh team in the Super 8.

“I don’t know why Hathurusingha made those statements. If he had done it to release the pressure on the players, we should have played with a lot of freedom. But that certainly was not the case, right?” Mahmud questioned.

Furthermore, when Shakib Al Hasan insisted that they did not do badly result-wise after losing to India in the second game of the Super 8, it only made things complicated, if not anything else.

To add to this, skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto insisted that they stopped chasing the dream of reaching the semifinal after losing three early wickets.

“If we don’t have dreams, there is no point playing cricket,” said Mahmud.

“I am not sure if winning three matches and reaching the Super 8 was our goal or not. But what I feel is that we should have been on the chase (scoring 116 runs inside 12.1 over to reach the semifinal) and lose the game rather than losing the game without trying for it,” said Mahmud.

“It was surprising considering we all know Hathurusingha is a very aggressive guy but his recent action doesn't speak in that direction,” he added.

The tactical blunder in the Super 8

Bangladesh made several tactical blunders in the Super 8 that began by dropping Taskin Ahmed from the playing XI against India despite seeing them being troubled by Afghanistan pace bowlers.

Mahmud seemed clueless with the entire episode and looked bemused when his attention was drawn of playing two pacers against India.

“I am not sure why we played two pacers against India. I feel Afghanistan have a better spin attack than Bangladesh while I feel we have a better pace attack than Afghanistan,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s decision to demote in-form Tawhid Hridoy at six against Afghanistan and not playing Shoriful Islam despite having a good track record against the opponents considering he removed both Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran on quite a few occasions during the recent past did not go well with Mahmud either.

“I think we should have sent Tawhid up in the order after Najmul was dismissed. He was hitting the ball well throughout the tournament and could have kept us in the hunt for a semifinal spot if he got enough time in the middle,” said Mahmud.

“We could have tried Shoriful against Afghanistan taking his track record into consideration and these are all tactical decisions,” he said. 

“I am not sure what mindset the team management was carrying but looking at everything, it seems that they were content reaching the Super 8 more than anything else,” he concluded.

Apart from that, whether everything was fine in the dressing room during the World Cup is a million-dollar question after Shakib insisted that he was not aware of their decision to field first against India.

What’s next for the Tigers?

Taking Bangladesh cricket culture into consideration, there is expected to be a lot of hues and cries after the national team arrives in Bangladesh just like the way it happened during the last World Cup that forced the BCB to form an assessment committee. However, it is not sure whether their recommendations would be taken into consideration or not as it was not made public to date.

There is a possibility no such committee will be in action this time round considering three wins in the T20 World Cup is the biggest achievement by Bangladesh in this tournament's history to date.