With a ferocious pace unit – the mixture of seasoned campaigners and promising youngsters who are gradually coming of age and spinners who take wickets irrespective of conditions – the Bangladesh ODI side looks like an immovable object, a dream team.
South African conditions are always demanding for any visiting side, especially for those from South Asia.
To put things into context, India were whitewashed 3-0 against the Proteas in their home turf back in January this year.
But Bangladesh did not only create history by winning a series for the first time ever in South Africa, they did it with utter dominance.
The tigers have outclassed their opponents in all three departments throughout the series.
Clinching the first ODI with a 38-run win following a supreme show with both the bat and the ball, Bangladesh sealed the series with an emphatic nine-wicket victory in the third ODI.
While two of the old guards Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan had a series to remember, the biggest takeaway for the tiger fans will surely be how the players other than the top four put their hands up and contributed to making history.
The series showed that Bangladesh cricket currently stands on firm footing after years of question marks over the future.
Surely Shakib Al Hasan's 77-run innings following a decent opening partnership by Tamim Iqbal and Liton Kumar Das would be the highlight as Bangladesh powered their way to 314 in the first innings of the first ODI in centurion. But Bangladesh could not have posted the mounting total not for the maiden fifty of Yasir Ali in just his fourth ODI.
In the field, he backed his batting up by taking a stunning catch at a crucial moment.
Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam made crucial breakthroughs at critical junctures, delivering a wicket every time Tamim called them in.
And how about Mehidy Hasan Miraz? He came back into the attack at the business end of the first match after effectively being taken to the cleaners in his first spell and turned things around by taking four wickets, ensuring a historical victory.
Even in the third ODI, Tamim resorted to Miraz after the Proteas got away with a flying start and he delivered by taking the wicket of the dangerous Quinton De Cock, which subsequently triggered a batting collapse.
Although Bangladesh succumbed to a heavy thumping in the second ODI, the statement by another youngster Afif Hossain in that game went on to show that the tigers do not give up without a fight.
Afif's resilient innings of 72 helped the Tigers post a respectable total after losing five early wickets.
Taskin was on fire with the ball and his five-wicket haul in the third ODI saw him becoming the first away bowler in ODIs in the last decade to scalp five wickets in South Africa after Sri Lanka legend Lasith Malinga in 2012.
The ODI format has always been the happy hunting ground for the Tigers. Since 2019, Bangladesh have a winning percentage of 71.42 under Russel Domingo.
They currently stand firmly at the top of the ICC World CUP Super League point table with 120 points.
Since the emergency of CWSL in January 2021, Bangladesh clean swept West Indies and Zimbabwe 3-0, won 2-1 against Srilanka and Afghanistan.
However, the series win against Sri Lanka West Indies and Afghanistan came in Mirpur while the only away series victory before the South Africa tour was against Zimbabwe.
Bangladesh saw the other side of the coin away from home as New Zealand defeated them 3-0 on Kiwi soil, reaffirming the belief that the red and green side are home track bullies and have miles to go before improving on SENA conditions.
But Bangladesh was slowly building up a pace attack reckoning with Taskin and Shoriful Islam who gave the side confidence in the idea that Bangladesh have a pace attack for conditions that do not suit their spinners.
In fact, Bangladesh ended their New Zealand curse earlier this year with a historical Test win, thanks to the pace battery.
Everything fell into place in the South Africa series and the message was well delivered, the Tigers can now tame their opponents in away conditions too.
If Bangladesh can continue maintaining a decent away record coupled with their phenomenal home run, the red and green side can truly be on their way to becoming the best ODI team in the world.
"If your dream isn't big, you cannot progress. Our dream is big. We want to win away series as we win series at home. We want to win the Asia Cup and the World Cup,” Miraz said before the second ODI in South Africa.
This proves that the squad is not satisfied with being mere bystanders and wants to make it big.
“Russel said that if we don’t believe now that we can win the World Cup, we should not believe in anything,” Tamim said after winning the series.
With the 2023 ODI World Cup slated to be held in India, the Tigers will have the advantage to materialise the dream in familiar conditions.
The dream is there, the belief is there. Whether the golden generation can make it big with the help of the new guards is something which only time can answer.
For now, we wait.
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