‘Youngsters played fearless cricket’
From Shoriful Islam's pace, bounce and swing with the new ball and his effective yorkers with the old one which left batsmen rooted to the ground at the death to Parvez Hossain Emon's audacity to smash the fastest T20 hundred by a Bangladeshi to greatly help chase down a 221-run total to Shamim Hossain's breathtaking fielding, the recently concluded Bangabandhu T20 Cup showed the youngsters' prowess throughout.
Famous brands Akbar Ali, Shoriful, Rakibul Hasan, Parvez and Shamim had already conquered age-level cricket by lifting the Under-19 World Cup trophy after beating India earlier this season. But usually, concerns cloud the time if they make the transition from age-level to the international level as much in the past have faded at this time after showing glimpses at the age-level.
After a few four-day practice matches and the three-team President's Cup in October, proper competitive cricket returned to the united states through the Bangabandhu T20 Cup, which concluded on Friday. And the performances of the World Cup-winning Under-19 batch in an effective competitive set-up for the very first time since their age-level triumph may help brush away some of these usual concerns.
"I am impressed that they played well at crucial occasions under pressure. This is proper competitive cricket after two four-dayers and a three-team tournament earlier. We wanted to observe how they reacted under great pressure. It will be similar to the circumstances they'll be facing at the international stage. Plus they looked very good. This batch is really promising and they lend us the hope that people are certain to get some very good cricketers," Bangladesh selector Habibul Bashar said when asked to evaluate the Under-19 players' performances, adding: "the characteristics of a player could be best judged when under duress".
Parvez Hossain's maiden T20 century -- a 42-ball 100, the fastest T20 century by a Bangladeshi -- that helped Fortune Barishal thrash Minister Group Rajshahi by eight wickets in a must-win face could be the perhaps most obviously example of whenever a player showed his true character and came through for the team.
While Parvez broke out of his shell through some power hitting in that particular game, left-arm pacer Shoriful proved to be an ideal match with ace left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman in the Chattogram squad. Shoriful's 16 scalps from 10 matches speak volumes of his consistency with the ball.
Promising left-arm spinner Rakibul's capability to turn the ball and return miserly figures or Shamim's diving efforts on the field to save crucial runs and the ones mid-air flicks from beyond the boundary before complete beautiful catches have all been the best takeaways from a tournament which also involved national stalwarts.
And that's specifically what Bashar reiterated.
"The way I would describe this tournament in a sentence is that it was the youngsters who stepped up as all three of the centuries came from youngsters. Shoriful Islam showed lot of promise. Left-arm spinner Rakibul [Hasan] looked decent. And that the children performed in such a tournament is what's the biggest takeaway for all of us out of this tournament. They have played fearless cricket which is accurately what I want to see in players," said an elated former Bangladesh skipper.
