Abdullah Al Mehdi

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.

T20I skipper for just a series, Nurul Hasan Sohan's injury triggered chaos and exposed the lack of clarity in the decision-making of the Bangladesh national team's think tank once again.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) arranged a get-together and lunch for cricketers at a city hotel today and, although members of the team management downplayed the significance of the ‘special’ lunch ahead of the Tigers’ tour of Zimbabwe, scraping past the surface the motive may have been to communicate some issues to the senior stars who might have been left a bit disappointed with the BCB’s refurbishment of the T20I line-up for the upcoming T20I series.

Legendary Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram was in favour of scrapping the ODI format as Test and T20 cricket gain more ground across the world, fueling the flames of the ODI format’s uncertain future that came to the fore when England’s Ben Stokes recently chose to retire from the 50-over game.

It has long been understood that Bangladesh find it easier to meet the challenges of the ODI format.

Following the T20 World Cup debacle in the UAE last year, there were talks in the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) hierarchy about finding a new direction for the T20I team.

The last time Bangladesh played a Test series in West Indies, Kemar Roach hobbled away to a fifer, conceding just eight runs in Antigua, the

Usually, when a new Test captain is appointed, the first focus is on the direction he wants to take the team. But Bangladesh’s newly instated captain is yet to speak about his plans for the team or the brand of cricket he wants to see it play.