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Bangladesh Team Profile

 

Bangladesh have proved to be one of the teams to watch at recent ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup events and they will be hoping this talented squad may be the team that can take them further than ever in this competition.

There will be huge enthusiasm for the tournament from the cricket-mad public back at home, who attended in such astonishing numbers when the event was held in Bangladesh in 2004 and when the team arguably enjoyed their greatest moment, as they defeated Australia to win the Plate final.

They will be hoping to improve on their fifth place at the tournament in 2006, having beaten Sri Lanka by 98 runs, after a desperately disappointing quarter final five-wicket defeat at the hands of England. But they will be hoping to build on their victories over other Full Members at the 2006 event in which they beat New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies.

Bangladesh have shown some good form in the build up to the event and displayed their strength of character, as well as cricketing ability, when they enjoyed a shock 3-2 series win over Pakistan, despite having lost the opening two matches.

Indeed, if you want to learn anything about the strength of character of this team, you need to look no further than the final match in this series when they managed to reach their target of 188 despite slumping to 125-7 after a dramatic mid-innings collapse, with Sohrawardi Shuvo and Dollar Mahmud sharing in a match-winning partnership of 59.

And although they were triumphant over South Africa U/19 in the recent triangular tournament in Pretoria in January 2008, they were crushed by a strong India U/19 side by 137 runs in the final. Throughout the tour, the team struggled for runs, with Mahmudul Hasan and Nasir Hossain the only players to register half centuries, while Hasan was also the leading wicket taker for his side in the series.

The side will be captained by Sohrawardi Shuvo, the slow left arm bowler who has already taken an impressive 69 wickets in 15 first-class matches, and as ever it will probably be with spin that Bangladesh will pose their most potent threat with the ball.

For an event which has proved to be a perfect stepping stone from youth cricket to international honours, it will be interesting to see who will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Mohammad Ashraful, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim and graduate onto the senior team.

Bangladesh finalized their preparations for the event with matches at home against Nepal and then the West Indies, with all eyes focused towards their opening group match against Bermuda on February 18th.

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