The decision of making Nurul Hasan Sohan the captain of the national T20 team has gained a lot of praise.
It indicates that the team management is looking towards the future, something which they are not known for doing. Some might say they are a bit late in this regard. However, better later than never.
Yet, like every other action of Bangladesh cricket’s think tank, this also raises some concerns. Let’s take a look at recent examples. In the 2nd T20I against Windies, Munim Shahriar was dropped. He was picked after an enticing BPL season.
He has not performed well, but the fact that he was dropped after only 3 innings itself makes no sense. Parvez Emon was never fielded in the national side even after showing potential in domestics.
Back in 2018, Bangladesh cricket was on a kind of revolution after the Chnadika Hathurusinghe era. We saw a T20 side with players who looked promising in the latest BPL. Players like Shato, Afif, Zakir, and Ariful got a chance on the national team. However, they performed poorly in that series against Sri Lanka.
But the astonishing fact was that the revolution could last for 2 matches only. After that, the Tigers were back to normal, to the players they believed in.
It was a testament to the fact that Bangladesh can think about change, and can take the steps as well, but they are not ready to have the patience necessary to carry out such a transition. It results in 1 step forward, and 3 steps backwards for them.
As of now, BCB appointed Nurul Hasan Sohan as a captain and kept Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim out of the squad for the T20 series against Zimbabwe. It seems like a move, keeping the future in mind, especially when the stakes are so high with Asia Cup and World Cup knocking at the door.
Given the history, the question however remains. If somehow Bangladesh does less than expected in this series, which will certainly not be tolerated, will they keep their patience with this relatively young core?
Or will they do what they’ve always been doing? This Zimbabwe series seems to be a test of the mentality of the management.
