By the time you are enjoying this article, Bangladesh might have already played their first World Cup warm-up match against Sri Lanka. However, the main mission for the team Tigers will commence on 7 October with the match against Afghanistan. This World Cup will be important for Bangladesh given the fact it could be the last World Cup for three senior players – skipper Shakib Al Hasan (36), Mushfiqur Rahim (36) and Mahmudullah Riyad (37). This trio was once a part of the fabulous five of Bangladesh cricket. The other two players were two former captains – Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (39) and Tamim Iqbal (34) who was recently dropped out from the current World Cup squad by the team management.
In terms of the previous two world cups, Shakib, Mushfiq and Mahmudullah – all of them have played some crucial knocks for the team and they will remain important for this campaign as well. For the starters, Shakib was the 3rd most run-getter in the ICC World Cup 2019, hosted by England. With a staggering 86.57 average, this man scored 606 runs in that edition. Apart from that, Shakib is the most World Cup run scorer among active players. To score 1146 runs in his last four world cups, he crossed the benchmark of 50 ten times alongside two tons. He has also got a 45.84 batting average, thanks to his fantabulous performance during the last World Cup. Besides Shakib has 34 wickets in his bucket. His batting performance in a World Cup event is 124*, which he scored against West Indies and for bowling, it is 5/29 against Afghanistan. He achieved both of the records in 2019.
With a 50+ average and 367 runs, Mushfiqur Rahim was the second-most run scorer for Bangladesh in the previous World Cup. Moreover, he also holds the record of second most run-getter among Bangladeshis and the world’s 7th most run-scorer as an active player in the history of this mega event. He has got 877 runs in total beside his name alongside 6 fifties and a ton. He has the possibility to reach the milestone of 1,000 runs in this World Cup. Mushfiq’s only century came against mighty Australia in 2019, when he played an unbeaten 102 runs inning in 97 balls and became the third Bangladeshi to reach a three-digit figure in an ICC World Cup tournament.
Mahmudullah’s annexation to the World Cup squad was no less than a drama. He was given ‘rest’ by the management for a few months after the England series in March. Critics say that he was dropped from the team by the name of ‘rest’ and lately when the selectors found no replacement for him, they finally called him for the New Zealand series prior to the World Cup. However, Mahmudullah has a special place in the history of Bangladesh cricket. He is the first Bangladeshi to score a century in World Cup history. His 103 runs against England on 9 March 2015 helped Bangladesh to eliminate the three lions and reach the quarter-final stage in a World Cup for the first time. In the very next match, he once again got a century against New Zealand at Seddon Park. His unbeaten 128 runs remain the best World Cup individual innings for any Bangladeshi batter in the mega event. Mahmudullah scored 616 runs in total in his 15 innings with an average of 51.33 since the 2011 World Cup, which was co-hosted by Bangladesh. This has brought him the tag of fourth most run-getter in the world cup among Bangladeshis, following Tamim who has kept the third place with 718 runs. Aside from his 2 tons, he has also got 2 fifties. Moreover, the 37-year-old all-rounder also took 4 wickets.
Therefore, from the aforementioned statistics, it is evident that this trio has the finest records among Bangladeshi cricketers. So, no need to mention that Bangladesh’s overall performance will also largely rely on them. Do you think they will make their last journey memorable for the fans as well?
