Over the years, the Bangladesh team has been a different side from their initial days in the cricketing world. In the limited overs format, Bangladesh team has believed in making the upsets against the best sides of world cricket.
Numerous speculations were made over their Test status but there is no shortage of talents from the emerging Asian team over the years. The initial days in the cricket for Bangladesh was struggling to get the status to play ICC Tournaments but they have made after being in mediocrity for quite a while.
With Talent in the Shed it's impossible to not meet opportunity. Akram Khan was the major reason behind Bangladesh getting the Test and ODI Status after performing in the ICC tournaments in the early 90s and Bangladesh becoming the Full Member of ICC under the captaincy of Akram khan.
Having said, let us take the top 5 greatest cricketers from Bangladesh:
Mohammad Rafique:
Nickname “Moe”. The first left-arm unorthodox spinner from Bangladesh. In the recent one decade there have been quite a number of left-arm spinners but the trend of left-arm spinner was started by Mohammad Rafique but he was the phenomenal one in the first phase of Bangladesh cricket history. Not just a bowler but he was the quite effective lower order batsman to score against any team in the world.
Rafique featured in 33 tests took 100 wickets at an average of 40.76 while in ODIs he took 125 wickets at an average 37.91 in 125 ODIs. He was the first Bangladeshi cricketer to arrive at 100 Wickets in Test matches.
Tamim Iqbal:
Wisden Test player of the 2011. Probably the greatest batsman ever produced by Bangladesh in their history. Tamim Iqbal was the first cricketer to reach the 10000 international runs by any Bangladeshi player in their history.
A proven match winner and hard hitter of a ball from the start of his career and the way this tenacious left-handed batsman destroyed the line and lengths of world class bowlers defined the calibre of him. When in the full-flow with his bat he has played an anchored role many times to define his batting strength.
Tamim Iqbal featured in 207 scored 7202 runs while in 60 tests he scored 4403 runs and is the only batsman in Bangladesh cricket history to have more than 12000 international runs across all the formats.
Shakib Al-Hasan:
Shakib Al-Hasan according to wisden cricketer ‘Almanack’ 2019 is second most valuable player of the 21st century. Without a doubt Shakib Al-Hasan is one of the greatest talents ever produced by Bangladesh cricket history and one of the greatest all-rounders in world cricket.
Over the years if there is such player from Bangladesh who has been the consistent in the Bangladesh cricket then it would be Shakib Al-Hasan.
Shakib Al-Hasan featured in 206 ODIs scored 6,323 runs along with 260 wickets while in the longest format of the game he took 210 wickets in 56 tests. As far as tests are concerned, Shakib Al-Hasan is the only bowler to take 200 wickets in Bangladesh cricket history.
Abdur Razzak:
600 wickets in first-class cricket, Abdur Razzak is the only bowler in the Bangladesh cricket history to achieve this feat. He was also the first one to take 200 ODIs wickets for Bangladesh.
Before Shakib Al-Hasan, Abdur Razzak was the vital cog of Bangladesh bowling unit during their first phase of Bangladesh cricket history. A quality left-arm unorthodox spinner who on the subcontinent pitches turned out to be dangerous bowler with his variations.
Abdur Razzak featured in 153 ODIs took 207 wickets although he was not quite effective in test cricket but alongside Mohammed Rafique he was an effective spinner on the limited overs format.
Mohammad Ashraful:
‘Talent meets opportunity’
Mohammed Ashraful was the perfect case of talent meets opportunity. The youngest ever batsman to score a test century at the age of 17. Mohammed Ashraful was the next big star from the emerging Bangladesh team.
But Ashraful had done his work to make his country proud before one shocking incident had ended his career almost. A dependable middle order batsman and legitimate game-changer for Bangladesh without any doubt over the course of his career.
Mohammed Ashraful featured in 178 ODIs 3468 runs while in 61 tests he scored 2737 runs numbers might not do justice to players like him.
But he was the special talent player ahead of its time and who can forget when Ashraful, punched century against predator Australia in 2005 at Cardiff making the biggest of cricket when it was the golden period of the Australia team which even Wisden stated “in the history of international cricket its biggest upsets ever”.
Mohammad Ashraful 94 runs off 52 balls against England and 87 against South Africa in world Cup 2007 were few of the best knocks came across from his bat to rightly define his abilities.
