A year of expansion in ODIs

There was a sense of inevitability about Bangladesh's series win over West Indies even after the Tigers lost the second match to go into Friday's series decider in Sylhet with an even chance of losing their last ODI of the year. As the hosts romped home with 69 balls and eight wickets to spare, the feeling of assurance could not have been in sharper contrast to the gloomy uncertainty with which 2018 had started.

Bangladesh started the year after being consummately outclassed across all three formats in South Africa in their last international assignment of 2017. The fallout from that tour was that Chandika Hathurusingha, Bangladesh's most successful coach and one who deserves partial credit for bringing them out of the doldrums of 2014, prematurely quit his post. He took charge of his native Sri Lanka and in his first assignment visited Bangladesh to contest a tri-series with the hosts and Zimbabwe. The Tigers thrashed Sri Lanka in their first match against their former coach, but lost their way in spectacular fashion after that, losing the next match against Sri Lanka and the final on January 27 by convincing margins.

Less than 11 months later, Bangladesh have ended the year with 13 wins in 20 ODIs -- the fourth-best win-loss ratio of the year. Five of those wins have come abroad -- a series win in the West Indies in July and an against-the-odds run to the Asia Cup final in the UAE in September.

The 2-1 win in the West Indies had come courtesy of the usual suspects -- the Big Five of skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal (who hit two centuries), Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad -- but the Asia Cup campaign was the result of the team digging deep without two of its brightest stars -- the injured Tamim and Shakib -- and, perhaps for the first time, coming up with some handy resources. Players like Imrul Kayes and Liton Das stepped up and almost landed the Tigers the title.

Before that, young off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz had announced himself as a major force in ODI cricket by bowling with guile with the new ball in the West Indies and has continued to do so since, culminating in a player-of-the-match performance in Friday's series clincher.

It will be a source of relief that others have started to catch up. Liton has one century and a fifty mixed in with some other fast starts at the top, Imrul has two centuries and two fifties and Soumya has hit a blistering century and a fifty in six matches for an average of 42.5.

"I know why people talk about the Big Five -- I don't because I know we are a team and a squad," said head coach Steve Rhodes yesterday. "Mehedi's form is incredible. He has done well in all formats. Liton is a really dangerous player and has done well in the big matches. No one talks about Fizz [Mustafizur Rahman] and how good he is in one-day cricket and one of the best death bowlers in the world.

"I think the good thing for Bangladesh is that we are starting to get some depth."

In a year that results can be compared to the best in the world, that may have been the biggest gain.