Ashfaq-Ul-Alam

A pitch darker than my future, and offering sharper turn than an Agatha Christie thriller, greeted the West Indies at Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium for yet another all-important bilateral three-match ODI series.

Bangladesh opener Mohammad Naim's fortunes went from bad to worse to worst in a span of 72 hours.

Talent, or at least the perception of having talent, can get you a much longer leash than others in Bangladesh cricket: Tanzid Hasan Tamim’s brief ODI career so far, is a testament to it.

The series is already gone, but Tuesday’s third match will be important for Bangladesh, who are languishing at 10th in the ICC ODI rankings and have only one ODI series left to get into the top nine to secure direct entry for the next ODI World Cup.

If there ever was an award in cricket for stating the obvious after a defeat, Bangladesh ODI captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz would be up for it for the reasoning he provided following the loss against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Which is the bigger tournament in cricket, the men’s ICC World Cup or the women’s?

The India-Pakistan cricketing rivalry has always been a proxy war of sorts, a battle between bat and ball, which, in the hearts of fans, was a matter of national pride, where victory was an obligation and defeat unacceptable.

The weight of captaincy in any sport compounds exponentially under the bright lights of a major tournament. On top of that, if the captain has not experienced the pressure of leading in that event before, it should put them at an even bigger disadvantage.

The ACC Men’s Asia Cup -- a tournament that has been running since 1984 -- has so far witnessed 16 editions in which eight different nations have participated, three different teams have lifted the trophy, and only one country has participated in every iteration.

If the 2-0 margin of victory doesn't make it obvious, the fact that only eight Bangladeshi batters got a chance to bat in the three-match series against the Netherlands is a solid indicator of just how one-sided the series in Sylhet was.

For the record book, Bangladesh captain Litton Das' fiifty against the Netherlands in the dead-rubber third T20I in Sylhet yesterday holds some significance. With it, the wicketkeeper-batter overtook Shakib Al Hasan for the most fifties, 14, in the format for the Tigers.

If Test cricket is the sporting equivalent of a literary epic, the five-match Test series between England and India was its Iliad -- a battle of two groups of warriors which will go down in history as a tale of valour, heroism and sheer audacity.

How Test cricket can be saved is a question that has been pondered upon for over a century, and since 2016, the ICC has seemingly made up its mind on the solution: dividing the teams into two tiers.

“You want to get a Test hundred against Harry Brook? If you wanted to score a century, you should have batted like you wanted to get it!”

There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and India and Pakistan getting slotted in the same group in Asia Cup!

After the first T20I against Pakistan on July 20, opener Parvez Hossain Emon had claimed that even the No.11 batter of the current Bangladesh team can clear the ropes.

Till Sri Lanka's Maheesh Theekshana rolled up to bowl the second delivery of the fourth over in the third T20I last Wednesday, Bangladesh opener Tanzid Hasan Tamim was going through a six-hitting rut.

In an ideal world, having five bowling options with a quota of 10 overs each should be sufficient to bowl the required 50 overs in an ODI innings.

If winning the SAFF Championship in 2022 and 2024 warranted the Bangladesh women’s team an open-top bus parade, what would be a proportionally appropriate celebration for the miracle they have just pulled off in Myanmar?

Miraz's recent ODI record establishes him as a consistent performer, which makes him a good captaincy candidate as he could lead by example. His pedigree as a leader, however, is not as impressive.