Since the time Mashrafe Mortaza has been appointed the captain of the Bangladesh limited over teams, the Tigers have gone from strength to strength.
There were quite a few who had dismissed the World Cup showing of Bangladesh as a mere fluke, but, in the ongoing home season, Mortaza’s boys have shown that they have actually raised their game and they deserve each and every win that they have secured in the recent times.
After clean sweeping Pakistan, they downed India 1-2 and that too quite dominatingly.
Now, they are up against South Africa and though, South Africa is a better team than Pakistan and India at the moment, they might as well end up rolling over them.
Mortaza has actually made these young Bangladeshi players believe that they are good enough to fight against any team in the World.
The Bangladeshis always had talent, but, what they lacked was the self belief.
They did not have an aggressive and thoughtful leader who would ask them to think about victory every single time.
The way Mortaza’s field settings and bowling changes have been, it has impressed everyone.
In the games against India, at times, he had 7 fielders in the 30-yard circle. He was not ready to give the batsmen easy singles at all and was virtually challenging them to go over the top if they could.
Also, the all pace attack that he went with, India would surely have not expected that.
Bangladesh’s strength has always been spin bowling and it was assumed Mortaza would go with three-one combination with himself, Rubel Hossain and Taskin Ahmed as the three seamers and Arafat Sunny the spinner.
But, the 31-year old brought in the surprise package Mustafizur Rahman and that guy made all the difference at the end.
Mortaza, the bowler, might be on decline, but, Mortaza, the captain, is certainly on the rise and he is taking the Bangladeshi team to another level.