The turn of events of the last few days has only dragged Bangladesh cricket backwards. Just before the World Cup, something that is not good, who does not know! But it was important to push those negativity aside and focus back on cricket. Bangladesh got that chance in the warm-up match against Sri Lanka. Bangladesh took it very well. The Lankans lost by a huge margin of 7 wickets. The Bangladesh team without Shakib Al Hasan managed to regain the all-important confidence before the World Cup.
In the Asia Cup, they won two out of five matches. Then Bangladesh lost to New Zealand in the last home series. The graph of the team's performance was downwards. After that, just before and after the announcement of the team, there was a lot of trouble with the seniors; the attention was diverted from cricket! Add to that the injury of Captain Shakib Al Hasan the night before the match. Before the start of the match, it seemed that it was not possible for Bangladesh to be on the back foot.
Shakib is not there, along with deputy Nazmul Hossain Shanto; In the absence of both, Mehdi Hasan Miraj was made the captain. But the luck of the toss went with Sri Lanka. When Sri Lanka reached the three-figure mark without losing a wicket, the innings had not even completed 15 overs. After that, Bangladesh came back in a great way. Credit to the bowlers and fielders for that. Sheikh Mehdi Hasan started it. With his three wickets, Mehdi Hasan Miraj, Nasum Ahmed, Shariful Islam and Tanjim Shakib's bowling, Bangladesh held the Lankans down and got a target of 264 runs.
No more mistakes from there. Two openers Tanjid Tamim and Liton Das gave Bangladesh a strong base. The team's 131 runs in 20 overs made the match almost certain. However, even after the return of Liton who scored a personal 61 runs, the fear of losing the way could not be ruled out. Mehdi Hassan Miraj did not let that fear come true. He started with Tanjid in steady batting, then finished with Mushfiqur Rahim with a cool head.
Tanjid may regret. Solid got off to a great start, a century just before the World Cup could have boosted his confidence manifold. But what has happened is less? After a long 'drought', the whole team should be confident in this win. For now, this confidence is a bigger achievement than winning this match.