Rubel Hossain is known for blowing hot and cold in a career spanning over a decade. Prone to err in the death overs, the right-arm pacer with a slinging action perhaps bowled his best ten overs in the one-day international against India in the Asia Cup final on Friday. His figures of 10-2-26-2 was a demonstration of how well he bowled in Dubai. He had Ravindra Jadeja caught in the 48th over, which was his last over, to create that window for a late twist in a pulsating final that Bangladesh lost off the last ball of the game.
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Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza became the first ever active international cricketer to join parliament when he was elected from Narail-2 in the eleventh national election on Sunday.
Mashrafe, who was greeted by garlands from supporters after winning by a landslide, informed that although his new responsibilities will be quite demanding, his dedication to cricket will not be affected.
"I won't compromise anything when it comes to cricket till the World Cup. So I have the same cricketing mentality till then," said the charismatic captain.
Mashrafe has quite a busy schedule ahead as 2019 will begin with him leading defending champions Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) set to get underway on January 5. The right-arm pacer, who will return to Dhaka today, said that his focus will now shift to performing well in the BPL.
"The focus will be on that from tomorrow. However, as I always gave my best in my cricketing career, I will also try to replicate it while working here [Narail]."
ODI skipper Mashrafe will then travel to New Zealand for a three-ODI and three-match Test series against the hosts in February. The Tigers will then play an ODI tri-series against hosts Ireland and West Indies in May ahead of the World Cup in England from May 30.
For most of the Bangladesh team, the World Cup warm-up game against Pakistan being washed out in Cardiff yesterday was not a big setback, but for two cricketers it was an opportunity missed to stake a claim for a spot in the playing eleven when the Tigers square off against South Africa in their World Cup opener on June 2.
It was a twist of fate that the team management decided to send those two players to the mixed media zone to have a few words with reporters soon after the match was abandoned. Mosaddek Hossain grabbed his place in the spotlight by hitting an unbeaten 24-ball 52 in the tri-series final against West Indies in Dublin on May 17, the day the Tigers won their maiden ODI multi-team trophy. In that rain-curtailed final, he performed the role that is expected of Sabbir Rahman, who after scoring his maiden international century in the third ODI in New Zealand did not get enough opportunities to prove his worth in Ireland.
"Today's match was important for me," Sabbir, who played a grand total of 10 balls over four matches in Ireland, said. "Now the next match [the second warm-up against India on Tuesday] is important. It is disappointing that the match did not take place, but the team is in good shape, as am I. I am practising on wickets that are similar to the ones that the matches will be played on."
He could, however, not be drawn into commenting on the possible competition with Mosaddek. "I have always played in hard situations, taking up the challenge. This time too it won't be easy, but I will try to do what I must do and give my best. I always feel that it is my last match, and I try to give my all from that mindset."
Mosaddek, who was one of the surprise inclusions in the World Cup squad, said that it was not about competing with Sabbir.
"I am not thinking about it that way," he said. "I will try my best, but I don't want to come into the team because someone else did poorly. The Bangladesh team comes first. If I get my chance I will try to do well.
"We are coming off a good series in Ireland, so one match not taking place because of rain is not too disappointing. Today I didn't get the chance, but there is a match against India and in that game we will prepare well and head to the World Cup."
As things stand with Mahmudullah Riyad's shoulder injury, Mosaddek has as good a chance as Sabbir of making the cut in order to bowl a few useful overs of off-spin. "These conditions are difficult for spinners because there is not much turn on offer. But I will try to minimise runs and keep the batsmen in check.
Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, took the blame for his team's poor show at the Asia Cup, but said that there's time to rebuild the team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
A convincing eight-wicket win over Hong Kong in the tournament opener suggested Pakistan were going to be a force. But it was followed by an eight-wicket defeat to India, and then, following a last-over win over Afghanistan in the Super Fours, losses to India and Bangladesh. As a result, Pakistan crashed out of the tournament they have won twice in the past.
"Yes, our performance was very poor. Our batting wasn't good, and we dropped a lot of catches. Our bowling was also patchy, and that's the reason we are out of the tournament," accepted Ahmed, who had a poor run with the bat himself, scoring 68 runs in four innings.
"I still believe we have a lot of talented players in the team. Look at Fakhar Zaman. Though he didn't have a good tournament, we have to back him. Babar Azam too. Imam has, thankfully, done well, but there's also Shadab and Hasan. We have to back them and take them along with us. We have to look at our bench too. We have a pool of players, and by the time the World Cup comes, we'll have a good team," said Ahmed.
"The World Cup is quite some time away, we have other engagements before that. Australia are coming, and then there's New Zealand. So we have to review our performance and see where we are falling short.
"We are losing too many wickets early, and the middle order has had to deal with the new ball, which isn't easy, and hitting quickly in the end isn't easy on these pitches. We'll have to get together and fix these issues."
While Ahmed called the performance 'alarming', he added, "There's no need to press the panic button. Yes, we have made mistakes as a team, and as a captain, I know that I didn't do well. But no need to panic, we need to back the players, look at the positions and see if there are people outside the team who can come in."
There has been a lot of debate on social media and elsewhere regarding Liton Das's stumping by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Friday's Asia Cup final. The decision was very close, as multiple angles of the sequence showed, before the third umpire finally ruled in favour of India. Here is what Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza had to say about this: "It is hard to tell. At one point we felt it was not out. I think the third umpire can say it better. Maybe it will be discussed later."
Performers, be they on stage, in front of television cameras or on the field of play, sometimes talk about 'love the mess' -- in other words revelling in the scenario when things spin out of control -- in order to survive the chaos. Bangladesh are certainly in a chaotic situation in the UAE in their Asia Cup campaign, and just before today's final against top-ranked India, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza seemed to have started embracing the bedlam.
"In this tournament we surprised ourselves and you folks as well. There were different players at different times in different positions," Mashrafe laughed as he answered a reporter's question about team composition. "Anyway, it was more to do with being a victim of circumstance. With Shakib [Al Hasan] not there, you might see someone [opening the batting] tomorrow who has never opened. We are prepared for everything and I am also asking you to be prepared."
The Asia Cup has been a trial by fire -- or at any rate intense Middle Eastern heat -- for Bangladesh. They lost opener and highest run-getter Tamim Iqbal with a left-hand fracture after the first match, had to contend with confusion surrounding the group placements and scheduling that seemed to be a product of organisers favouring India, and then the loss of ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.
While Mashrafe, always an upbeat person, at times cut a forlorn figure in the middle stages of the tournament when they lost abjectly to Afghanistan and India. But then, on Sunday in the three-run win over Afghanistan, things started improving even as they appeared to become more pear-shaped. Opener Imrul Kayes was flown in to bolster a weak opening partnership, but Mashrafe decided to bat him at number six for the first time in his life, and he scored 72.
On Wednesday, after Shakib was ruled out, Bangladesh still managed to win against Pakistan, having to play with a bowler less. Part-time medium pacer and the other opener flown in, Soumya Sarkar, made up for that handicap with a fine bowling performance and took a wicket, shockingly, with a bouncer.
Roles have been redefined and Mashrafe seemed to be revelling in the madness of it all.
Seen from a wide angle, this topsy turvy state has hardly come out of the blue. Tamim suffered the fracture in the 11th ball of the tournament against Sri Lanka. Even though he came back to the dressing room with his left arm in a sling, Mashrafe urged the opener to go out at number 11 to enable Mushfiqur Rahim to score as many runs as possible. Tamim had the gumption to follow the order and played a ball one-handed, contributing to the 137-run win.
That single bit of courage and flexibility seems to have infected the whole squad throughout a tournament of highs and lows.
"Frankly, when Tamim took the field with a broken hand, to me I had won the Asia Cup right then," Mashrafe said with a smile.
If he can keep embracing the chaos and thinking out of the box, there may actually be more to smile about today.
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