‘Juniors need more responsibility’

Following a disappointing Test series, the Bangladesh cricket team, buoyed by the return of inspirational captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, clinched the ODI series 2-1 and won their first series outside Asia in nine years.

The incredible feat was possible thanks to some of the stalwarts of the Bangladesh team. Familiar and household names like Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza came to the fore once again.

However, once again and perhaps not unexpectedly, the junior members in the side failed to make their mark as the challenge to upstage the hosts fell on the established players.

Sarwar Imran, who was Tigers' coach for their inaugural Test in November 2000, felt that Bangladesh needed to solve the problem by first focusing on domestic cricket and also believed that the juniors will have to be given responsibilities or otherwise they will not progress.

While talking about juniors, Imran singled out Sabbir Rahman as someone who has been performing below expectations for quite some time.

In seven ODIs played in 2018, Sabbir have contributed with scores of 24(not out), 6,2,3,10,12,12 – an average of just 11.5. While there is an argument to be made that he came lower down the order, his bat did not flourish in Bangladesh's 2-1 ODI series win either and there were times Bangladesh could have used his power hitting.

"The selectors and the team management need to understand that if someone is failing repeatedly then it would have to be unearthed whether that player has a problem somewhere else.

"Team management will have to find out if the problems are mental or tactical. A hard-hitter like Sabbir is rare in Bangladesh," Sarwar added.

"The problem starts from local cricket. We have to increase the standard of umpiring in local cricket. Another thing is that if the juniors are always seen as juniors, then they will never progress," Imran said.

"For example, if there was four foreign-player quota in the BPL [Bangladesh Premier League] instead of five, then the juniors would have been able to take on more responsibility.

"Juniors can't be treated as juniors, they have to be given more responsibility so that they can do something for their country," he concluded.

Off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz was perhaps the only younger member who played a crucial part in the series win as he was outstanding with the new ball in every match.

Anamul Haque disappointed in all three outings while Sabbir Rahman and Mosaddek Hossain will have to rethink their approaches.