Tigers count massive successes in Covid-19 marred year

Like other sporting events, lion portion of FTP and bilateral fixtures of cricket irrespective to countries either have been postponed or cancelled due to global catastrophe created by corona virus. Bangladesh did nothing exceptional. All domestic and international actions between March 2020 and September 2020 had been deferred. Tigers played couple of international series by the 1st quarter of the year and tasted sweet and sour fruits while cricket resumes in the country by the last quarter with twin intra-squad competitions with festive looks. Let's have a bird's eye view on the cricketing activities Tigers during pandemic year.
 
National team played less to bag more success rate
Bangladesh visited Pakistan to play three-match T20i series and two Test matches, which are the part of the ICC World Test Championship. Tigers conceded innings and 44 runs' defeat in the 1st test of the series while the 2nd Test had been postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic. The Bangladesh Team was due to reach Karachi on March 29 to play the lone ODI on April 01 and the second ICC World Test Championship Test between April 05 and 09. The boards are yet to decide the revised fixture of the overdue games. According to the Future Tours Programme (FTP) of the ICC, the due Test of the WTC needs to be held within March 2021.
Mominul Haque led side however, sealed the title of the one-off Test series against Zimbabwe beating guests by an innings and 106 runs to have an Even Steven year.
Tigers set off a defeat-less year in their favourite format, one-dayers. Bangladesh hosted Zimbabwe for a three-match bilateral ODI series and swept guest cleanly.
Bangladesh outclassed Zimbabwe in the starter by 169 runs and won the run galore 2nd match by four runs to seal the title with one match to go while ended series with a massive 123 runs' win.
Like red ball games Tigers registered fifty-fifty success rate in the tiniest international format of the game. Mahmudullah led Bangladesh T20i team travelled to Pakistan on January 22 to play a three-match T20i series with hosts. Guests lost the starter of the series by five wickets on January 24 and succumbed by nine wickets in the penultimate clash of the series to slip the title. The last match was abandoned due to heavy downpour. Pakistan therefore, clinched the series 2-0.
Tigers' turned around in the very next series against Zimbabwe. They whitewashed visitors in the two-match series. They smashed Rhodesians by nine wickets in the 1st match and came out victorious by 48 runs in their last T20i battle of the year.

Junior Tigers lift World Cup
Bangladesh Under-19 cricketers became the new World Champions crashing four times winners India by three wickets in the final of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2020 at Senwes Park, Potchefstroom on February 9.
Akbar Ali led boys brought maiden trophy of any ICC event for Bangladesh. It is undoubtedly the biggest achievement in the history of country's cricket. The previous highest achievement for under-19 boys was attaining the 3rd place of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in 2016 at home. Playing in the semifinal of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017 and Quarterfinal of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 are the top two successes of the senior Men's Team while title of the Asia Cup was the highest achievement for Bangladesh Women's cricket team.
Before reaching final, Bangladesh smashed Zimbabwe and Scotland but shared points with Pakistan in group stage. They blew away hosts South Africa in the quarterfinal and demeaned New Zealand in the semifinal to make their maiden manifestation in the World Cup final.

Mushi hits 3rd double ton
in Test cricket
Mushfiqur Rahim became the 1st and only Bangladesh batsman to pick-up three double-centuries in Test cricket. Mr. Dependable hit the 3rd double ton on February 24 during the solitary Test between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur.
He was the 1st Bangladesh batsman to hit a double-ton in 2013 against Sri Lanka. His sharp 200 helped Bangladesh to escape defeat in that match. He became the only wicketkeeper batsman in the world to have two double centuries after playing his career best unbeaten 219 runs' knock against Zimbabwe in 2018. Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan are the two more Bangladesh batsmen to have one double century each in Test cricket.

End of Mashrafe period
as captain
Legendary captain of Bangladesh cricket Mashrafe Bin Mortaza untie with Bangladesh Cricket as skipper after the last ODI of the three-match series against Zimbabwe on March 6.
'The Captain Fantastic' led Bangladesh in 87 ODIs and came out victorious 47 times. He also captained Tigers in 28 T20i matches, of which they won 10 times. Bangladesh played one Test under him, which they won. Mashrafe won the swan song as skipper which was his 50th victory as captain.
As a pacer, Mashrafe is the leading Bangladesh wicket taker in ODIs. He bears a rich stat of 270 ODI wickets from 220 matches with best bowling figure of six for 26. Mash also has 78 Test wickets from 36 matches. He also has 42 T20i wickets next to his name.
Mashrafe, one of the bravest athletes on earth, had gone under blade for seven times but nothing could depart him from his passion for the game of cricket.
He was elected as the Member of Parliament in 2018 from Narail-2 Constituency.
Injury forced Mashrafe to quit playing Test matches in 2009 and he concentrated on shorter format games from then. He suddenly announced his retirement from T20i format in 2017.

Shakib resumes
post-ban career
Lift ban on Shakib Al Hasan was one of the hot cake topics in global cricket this year. The tenure of International Cricket Council (ICC)'s twelve-month ban on Bangladesh superstar and ace all-rounder of cricket across the format ended on October 29.
The Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) of the ICC imposed embargo on all cricketing activities of Shakib on October 29 in 2019 for failing to report on spot fixing approaches to him.
The double-edged sword was supposed to resume action with 2nd Test match against Sri Lanka in November which had been postponed amidst quarantine spat. He started his post ban action with the just-late Bangabandhu T20 Cup but had failed to justify his name though his team Gemcon Khulna clinched the title of the event.

BCB President's Cup and Bangabandhu T20 Cup
After the postponement of Sri Lanka tour, BCB decided to arrange couple of domestic events to bring cricket back in the country after a long gap of eight months due to outbreak. The 1st one was a three-team intra-squad 50-over tournament. Tamim XI, Nazmul XI and Mahmudullah XI were the three squads named after respective team skippers. Mahmudullah led side came out victorious in the final beating Nazmul XI.
Bangabandhu T20 Cup conversely, was a T20 corporate league like Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Gemcon Khulna clinched the title of the event beating Gazi Group Chattogram by five runs in the breathtaking final of the event on December 18 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka.

No success for Tigresses
Bangladesh Women's Cricket team completed the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 mission without any success. They also lost all the matches But still Salma, Rumana and Jahanara soared at 8th spot in the latest ICC Women's ODI ranking sailing over Sri Lanka Women's. Tigresses gained seven more points with the previous 54 rating points while Sri Lanka lost eight points to exchange situates.

Postponed series
ICC T20i World Cup 2020 was supposed to be held between October 18 and November 15. Australia was the host of the saga, which had been postponed amidst Covid-19 threat. Besides this mega event, three complete tours and one Test match of Bangladesh Cricket team had been postponed. The last of the two-match Test series against Pakistan was the 1st among Tiger's FTP matches to defer. Tigers' tour to Ireland and England, Bangladesh's tour to Australia and Bangladesh's tour to Sri Lanka were the postponed event of the year.

Quarantine spat spoils SL Tour
The most controversial incident of international cricket of the year possibly was the quarantine debate between Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). After three time alternations, Bangladesh were supposed to travel Sri Lanka on September 27 to play three Test matches but the series was finally postponed since the boards failed to reach in a resolution regarding quarantine period. Bangladesh proposed to minimise quarantine period up to seven days while SLC showed stubbornness about 14-day mandatory quarantine for travellers. They also ignored to provide all supports which are necessary to play in international event. They also requested to send an irrationally little troop, which was ridiculous during pandemic days.