5 players who helped Bangladesh turn around their ODI fortunes
Bangladeshi tigers are roaring nowYou can call them “minnows”, but now they are the giant killers. The cricketing year 2015 is not just the year that will be forever remembered for the 11th ICC Cricket World Cup but also one that tells you the story of the epic dominance of Bangladeshi cricket.From a historical World Cup quarter-final appearance to back to back ODI series winning against the top cricketing nations, Bangladesh have confirmed their rise in international Cricket. Their devastating progress in international cricket is still active as they have managed to win 12 out of their 14 matches at their home by defeating Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India and South Africa.In addition to that they also hammered England during the World Cup 2015 which eventually restricted England for qualifying the quarterfinals. As it is said, “Fortune favours the brave”; all the hard work finally paid off and now they are finally being selected to play the Champions Trophy 2017.Bangladesh have achieved some landmark feats by defeating the two semi-finalists of 2015 World Cup India and South Africa. They are currently ranked at the 7th position in the latest ODI rankings, just ahead of Pakistan and West Indies and are much closer to England with a margin of just 2 points.Although cricket is a team game, it’s the individuals whose contributions drive a team towards the victory. In this article, we have picked out the top five stand-out performers for Bangladesh who have displayed some splendid performances in order to change the fortune of their country.While analyzing the performances, only the performances of 2015 are taken into consideration which implies the series against Zimbabwe is omitted.So let’s have a look at the current top 5 performers of Bangladesh Cricket.
#5 Mustafizur Rahman
The 19-years-old Bangladeshi left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman stunned the whole cricketing world with his sensational debut against India by claiming the top 5 Indian wickets. His show continued on the next match as he went an extra mile to grab his career-best bowling performance of 6 for 43.
With this performance, he became only the second bowler after Brian Vitori to take five-wicket hauls in his first two ODIs. His best weapons are the slower off-cutters which also troubled the batsmen like Virat Kohli, Hashim Amla.
Although he had no contribution in the series against Pakistan, but his bowling performances played a vital role in the series against India and South Africa. However, his controversial collision against Indian captain MS Dhoni during the first ODI in Mirpur raised several questions on his sportsman spirit. After the match, he admitted his fault and he was fined 50% of his match fee.
But looking at his current bowling statistics, one can simply say that he is one of the best emerging cricketers of 2015.
Bowling Performance in 2015
Matches: 6
Innings: 6
Overs: 53.2
Wickets: 18
Average: 12.65
Econ: 4.25
BBI: 6/43