‘This unit has everything to be the best in the world’

Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal said that his side has the potential to be the best unit in the world after the Tigers’ sealed their maiden 10-wicket victory in ODIs in their final match against Ireland at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Thursday. 

“Unbelievable,” is how Tamim explained the team’s effort throughout the series while speaking at the presentation ceremony following the game.

In today’s game, Bangladesh went with an attacking line up featuring three quicks — Ebadot Hossain, Hasan Mahmud and Taskin Ahmed — two left-arm spinners in Shakib Al Hasan and Nasum Ahmed and an off-spinner in the form of Mehedi Hasan Miraz.

Tamim said that having such diversity in the eleven is what shows that this group of players has what it takes to be the best in the world.

“Players like [Mehedi Hasan] Miraz, when they start performing with the bat, we can always go with a batter short because we trust in Miraz’s ability. If you see the eleven today, we had three good fast bowlers, two left-arm [spinners] and one off-spinner. In the bowling department, we probably had covered everything. And I think that’s the way forward. We need to keep on believing in our players. There will be ups and downs going forward but this unit has everything to be the best in the world,” Tamim added.

Bangladesh notched two of their highest ODI scores in the three-match series against Ireland. After posting a mammoth 338 for eight in their 183-run win in the first ODI — the Tigers’ biggest margin win in the format – Bangladesh batters surpassed the score in the very next game by posting 349 for six, their highest total in ODIs.

Mushfiqur Rahim was the hero of the second game as the wicketkeeper-batter smashed a 60-ball 100 to become Bangladesh’s fastest centurion in the format, even though the game was washed out.

Meanwhile, today’s victory will forever be a part of Bangladesh’s cricketing history for another reason as well. This was the first time that Bangladesh pacers scalped all 10 wickets in an ODI. The Bangladesh pacers scalped nine wickets four times in Test while accounting for eight wickets 12 times in ODIs before today.

Also, this was Bangladesh’s second-biggest win in terms of balls remaining as the Tigers crusied to victory with 221 balls to spare. The largest win in terms of balls remaining for Bangladesh was when they beat Zimbabwe by six wickets with 229 balls in hand in 2009 in Chattogram.

“I think the way we played the whole series was very nice. The two batting performances in the first two games is something that we have never done before. And especially today, the way the fast bowlers bowl today was unbelievable. I am not too sure if this ever happened in Bangladesh before that all the 10 wickets were taken by pacers but now I can proudly say that we have a solid, solid, solid fast bowling attack,” Tamim said.