Abdullah Al Mehdi

“Shakib! Shakib,” Tamim Iqbal called out. “Who? Me?” Shakib Al Hasan gestured after someone brought it to his attention. Soon the ace all-rounder converged on the centre wickets to speak to Tamim and coach Chandika Hathurusingha.

Things happened as if in a frenzy yesterday evening

It was a picture of a happy dressing room, Bangladesh players taking pride in their new-found strength from the depths of defeat after all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz’s heroics, with only Mustafizur Rahman for company, helped clinch the first ODI against India in Mirpur. Shakib Al Hasan himself was one of those lending a shoulder on the occasion as Miraz was hoisted in the air.

Ryan Burl has come leaps and bounds since his early days, with his rise perfectly coinciding with the new-found ambition coming through in Zimbabwe cricket. The 28-year-old spoke about growing up with cricket and other sports and his view on the current generation of Zimbabwe players during an interview with The Daily Star’s Abdullah Al Mehdi. The excerpts are below:

Julian Wood is known as somewhat of a pioneer in coaching T20 power-hitting. This time, he is enjoying a stint with Chattogram Challengers as head coach.

Before the Bangladesh Premier League’s ninth edition had rolled on to the field, Bangladesh Test and T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan was scathing in his criticism of the tournament’s organisation. As the tournament has begun, Shakib’s attitude towards it has only caused further uproar about its standards.

Sylhet Strikers and Towhid Hridoy are seemingly turning a page. The batting order has stability with Najmul Hossain Shanto and Hridoy at the top along with the power of Zakir Hasan in the middle while Thisara Perera can still punch a hole at the death with the bat.

Ace all-rounder and Fortune Barishal skipper Shakib Al Hasan may have taken centre-stage ahead of the start of the tournament with his scathing criticism of the BPL organisers on Wednesday, but by the time the tournament began yesterday, he was fully immersed in cricketing rituals.

How should one remember December 18? It may as well be known as the GOAT day. The coronation of the King, who completed football. The story, with a fairytale ending for one of the greatest to play the game and what had come to pass before and the joy thereafter, makes it one of sport’s greatest. For France, it was 120 minutes in the Lionel Messi territory and some more. For Argentina, they had to do it under the spirited gaze of Kylian Mbappe, always on the hunt. That only made Messi’s coronation that much sweeter in the end.

Day one of the first Test between Bangladesh and India was a seesaw affair for the most part despite the game remaining in balance at the close of play yesterday.

It was edge-of-the-seat stuff at the end and it came against the backdrop of a low-scoring encounter as Bangladesh put their ODI mettle to use to seize victory from the jaws of defeat with a thrilling one-wicket win over India in the first of the three-match ODI series at Mirpur yesterday.

Clenched teeth, head lowered. That is how Lionel Messi returned to the dressing room after his first-half penalty was saved by Wojciech Szczesny. If that is how things had ended, it could have been Messi’s last World Cup game. But his team had other ideas.

Lionel Messi dropped off from Mexico’s midfield marker and just stood there for an instance, standing quite a few metres from the top of the box, as he usually does. Only a nuanced eye would know that he is waiting for Julian Alvarez to push the centre-backs just a little bit more before he almost willed Angel Di Maria pass onto his feet. This is the nearest distance to goal that his countrymen could find him with a pass and with Argentina’s World Cup hanging on the line, Messi did the impossible.

“Is that extra bounce in Mirpur?”

Bangladesh’s batting order and their overall batting plan in the T20I format continue to flummox, with Liton Das and skipper Shakib Al Hasan’s batting positions an area which negates Bangladesh’s advantage as a batting unit heading into the T20I World Cup in Australia.

When it comes to death-over bowling, the 2022 Asia Cup has seen pretty sub-par performances from a few bowlers. Pakistan’s Harris Rauf and India’s Arshdeep Singh have been the most reliable names in the tournament, but in general, runs have been leaked and the biggest boost it has given is to batters who played the role of finisher in the T20 event.

The recent pattern of the T20 game has seen wrist spinners gain more ground but the dearth of off-spinners in the shortest format has seen their roles come into question, whereas in ODIs the off-spinners are called to stem the flow of runs and also to lull batters to take chances against them, resulting in their dismissals.

It was heartbreak for Bangladesh as they exited the Asia Cup, unable to grab the bull by the horns, on Thursday following an agonising two-wicket defeat in Dubai.

After being dealt a crushing blow by Afghanistan in the first match of the 2022 Asia Cup, Sri Lanka captain and all-rounder Dasun Shanaka opined that Afghanistan were a much more difficult hurdle than their Group B opponents Bangladesh.

Bangladesh appear to be the fifth-best among the top five teams heading into the Asia Cup tournament.