Bangladesh are out of the World Cup and they have only themselves to blame

The enormous Eden Gardens, half-full or thereabouts for a non-India match on a weekday, began to empty out long before Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed performed the final rites.

Fans in green and red had sung and cheered their way into the stadium hours ago. Some flaunted the stuffed tigers. Some wore shirts bearing the name of Shakib Al Hasan, their captain and the greatest cricketer in their history. Some carried banners proclaiming how Tamim Iqbal was missed.

Now, the entire cohort of Shakib’s left in a slow trickle past an infallible lone fan, who held up a defiant ‘We are always with you, Team Tiger’ banner.

There had been reports of thousands of Bangladesh fans travelling to Kolkata, their nearest World Cup venue and a city that shared their language, for their two World Cup matches.

Many had returned after the Dutch humiliation, foregoing the more high-profile of the two matches against Pakistan. Now the rest walked back dejected, after watching their heroes suffer the ignominy of being the first team to be knocked out of the World Cup.

It was not supposed to be like this, not now, not at this World Cup. After all, Bangladesh had finished third, above India, Australia, and South Africa, in the 2020-23 World Cup Super League to qualify for the big tournament.

At home, they had not lost a single bilateral ODI series between 2016 and 2023. True, the World Cup was in India, but the conditions in Bangladesh, while not exactly the same as in India, were less dissimilar than you find in some other nations at this World Cup. And away from home, they had famously won in South Africa in 2022.

Tamim, Shakib, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah – the old guard – were still around. In Mehidy Hasan Miraz, there was an heir to Shakib. Between them, the Master and the Apprentice provided Bangladesh two batters in the top five and twenty overs of bowling. Litton Das had a terrific 2022. After an indifferent start to his ODI career, Najmul Hossain Shanto had finally found his mojo. And for the first time in their history, Bangladesh finally had a pace attack worthy of mention.

Bangladesh previously qualified for the final of the ODI Asia Cup in 2012 and 2018, but failed to make it this time. They were then swept aside by New Zealand at home. There was the occasional reaction, but all eyes were on the World Cup.

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They made it into the top eight in both the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and, in between, the top four in the 2017 Champions Trophy, all of them outside the Indian subcontinent. They were not one of the best, but they were good.

Cricketers, fans and pundits backed them to improve on their previous World Cup performances this time around. As recently as eight days ago, despite having lost four on the trot, their captain said that dream was still alive. Now, it is all over.

So what went wrong? Bangladesh came into the World Cup without Tamim and Ebadot Hossain but with everyone else. Did they miss Ebadot? Perhaps they did, but Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, and Hasan Mahmud are, at least on paper, a reasonable attack.

Tamim, of course, was a major blow on at least two counts. Despite his recent misses, including this World Cup, he is still Bangladesh’s leading ODI run-scorer. Someone like that was always going to be difficult to replace.

But perhaps just as significant was the manner in which Tamim opted out, after a phone call from a board official. What transpired – a social media video from Tamim, an video interview of Shakib – was exactly the kind of murk between two seniors that a team wants to stay clear of ahead of a long, gruelling tournament. So they showed up with a Tamim-shaped hole, and a Shakib without any batting form, fresh from a controversy.

Something like that would have affected most sides. Bangladesh were poor – and that is not an overstatement – in every department. All but one of them averages on the wrong side of 33 with the bat after seven matches of the 2023 World Cup, as does every bowler who has bowled more than 15 overs. They failed as a unit in both departments.

To be fair, they began well. Afghanistan raced to 83-1 in their first outing, but Bangladesh hit back to bowl them out for 156. Shakib claimed three wickets, as did Mehidy, who also hit a fifty; they won with more than 15 overs in hand. So far, so good.

Then everything fell apart. They had near-identical defeats against England and South Africa where they conceded scores more than they have ever made, and lost four quick wickets. Their openers added 93 in 92 balls against India, but they failed to capitalise on that despite a run-friendly surface.

Against South Africa and England, their bowlers could not contain the opposition’s aggressive batters. Against New Zealand, they could not strike. Against India, they failed on both counts. Against the Netherlands, when their bowlers finally did an acceptable job, their batting caved in.

Against Pakistan, with their neck on the line, they followed a more conventional batting order. But they lost wickets inside the powerplay; and whenever a partnership looked promising, they lost wickets again. They made a sub-par score, and the bowling simply caved in. Fielding – never their strongest suit – was as insipid as it has been throughout the tournament.

Even in defeats, teams sometimes remain in the contest for a period of time before the superior side prevails; but barring their opening stand against India and – perhaps – their bowling effort against the Netherlands, Bangladesh have failed to leave any mark in six matches in a row.

“Maybe our luck isn’t helping us,” explained Mehidy at the press conference after the defeat against Pakistan. Unfortunately, that explanation does not hold up if six consecutive matches are as good as decided by the time the first innings is over.