The cockiness that is the Bangladesh Cricket Team

1st Test - Bangladesh v England - 20-24th October 2016
Result - England won lost by 22 runs

Just a few days ago, the same Bangladesh team were gung-ho about having beaten a full-fledged England team in an ODI.

The Bangladesh players started getting cocky towards the end of the match with their hooliganism-like celebrations after each wicket.

Jos Buttler was the first one to witness it on the ground.

Mind you, no words were exchanged, it was just the way the players celebrated almost mocking the English batsmen that ticked Buttler off.

The monkey-faces, the teasing, all juvenile behaviour. If one can go back to school times, it's what the bully would try and do to intimidate you.

It stems from the lack of self belief one has that makes one act cocky and irritating. Similar is Bangladesh players' reason. The success they've had recently has in some ways gone to their heads.

It was not often that our neighbours have had success against the big teams in world cricket but the ICC World Cup 2015 was a different story. They not only beat sides like England convincingly they did this on a consistent basis even after the World Cup. Infact, in the past 2 years this is their first defeat in a One Day series at home.

They had remained unbeaten in 6 consecutive series at home. In this time they managed to beat teams like South Africa, India, Zimbabwe.

Inspite of all this, somehow they have not been able to instil the confidence in themselves to believe that they can do this more often and have what it takes to play at this level.

The problem with Bangladesh cricket had always been that they were not improving as a side and since the past 1 year or so they have. They started beating good one day sides, started playing competitive cricket, which is what would get them the respect that they are so clearly desperate for.

At the same time, incidents like these will not only hamper their reputation further but make fans the world over believe that this is a one-off phase and that Bangladesh is not capable of reproducing such amazing wins on a consistent basis.

The 1st Test vs England was another super chance for the team to stamp their mark in Test cricket.
A chance for them to transform their ODI success to the Test level. But, alas, they could not.

This loss can easily be attributed to their 'lack of experience at the Test level' but it is not that.
It was selfish cricket on the part of a few batsmen that led to their downfall from a fairly commanding position.

Sabbir Rahman, who most are hailing to be the next hero from the land of the left-arm spinners, was the chief culprit. He would often get off strike in the beginning of the over, letting the lesser batsmen face the music on the other end. The ploy obviously did not work as very soon the game was all over when Ben Stokes got Taijul Islam and Shafiul Islam lbw in a matter of 3 deliveries.

Hope Sabbir and Bangladesh have learnt their lesson and instead of seeing the annoying side of the players and the fans, we get to see a team with more self-belief and confidence.

Last man standing

In the on-going Australia-India series, it seems like India Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is fighting a lone battle.

His batsmen might be scoring all the runs, but his bowlers and fielders just do not seem to be with him.

To be fair, the batsmen too, are only scoring for themselves and bettering their own record. Take Rohit Sharma for instance. He has been in good form and is trying to make the most of it. Australian pitches are not known for their seam or swing and hence it's difficult to get him out initially. We all know that Rohit is a nervous starter, and this lack of swing, seam or pace from the Australian unit is only playing into his hands. Agreed that it still takes some doing to score two back-to-back hundreds and kudos to him for that.

Virat Kohli, scored two back-to-back fifties and he seemed in great form too. He had pledged that he will score atleast two hundreds in the series and so far till the 3rd ODI he has hit one. His average before this series in Australia was 15.83, which has now gone upto 40.22. So, he did himself and the country a favour.

Shikhar Dhawan, as much as it was debated if he did play a selfish innings or was it his way of getting back into the groove of things and may be push on from there, after getting a start. One wouldn't know the result as he got out scoring 68 off 91 deliveries in the 3rd ODI at Melbourne.

Ajinkya Rahane, scored two fifties and is trying to secure his place in a team where Dhoni is captain. Kohli, believes in him as a Test batsman. Although, it isn't clear yet if Rahane will remain at no.4.

Anyway, back to the Dhoni and the lone battle.

If one was to view the matches from a non-biased point of view, it could be clearly seen that the bowlers and fielders just do not seem to be under Dhoni's control. He asks them to bowl to a certain field and they fail to deliver. And these are no inexperienced bowlers as the commentators and experts have been crying out loud. It is Ishant's 4th tour, Umesh's 3rd tour, Ashwin's 2nd tour. Bhuvneshwar too has travelled to Australia before.

The fact that after the 2nd ODI Dhoni mentioned in the press conference that Rishi Dhawan might bowl well but will not be successful at this level and the next match he gets his ODI cap. Clearly shows a rift between the selectors and the captain. The fact that what the captain says and believes in just does not matter doesn't augur well.

If he is the chosen captain then give him all the support.

As of now it is pretty clear that the Kohli-Shastri nexus is working overtime to make sure the Dhoni-led Team India doesn't get success and paves way for Kohli to takeover the ODI as well T20 captaincy from India's most successful captain ever!

Sad as it may be, Indian cricket has never really learnt to give a fitting farewell to its heroes. The World T20 in all possibility might be Dhoni's last series as captain and player.

The way the format is scheduled for the World T20, India is bound to reach the semis and from there it is anybody's game. If Dhoni wants to be selfless he might not retire if India wins, just the way Tendulkar did not, as he thought it would take away the focus from India's victory.

But Dhoni is now a changed man. He blames his bowlers, he complains about his batsmen not being able to rotate the strike, he gets frustrated on the field, he ha started to show his emotions after India picks up a wicket or when his fielders fail. This Dhoni is not the Dhoni that won us the World T20 with the calm and the cool.

This is a new Dhoni. One who is fighting a lone battle, sadly, there is no one supporting him.

Dhoni is the last man standing of his own era!