Bangladesh's ODI form buoyed by healthy competition for spots

They beat Australia 2-1 last week, having already defeated WI, Pakistan and NZ in consecutive ODI series since October 2025

Mohammad Isam

Published: Jun 15, 2026, 7:10 AM (9 hrs ago)

Bangladesh captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz has said that the ODI side's improvement has a correlation with many players competing for places in the XI.

Bangladesh beat Australia 2-1 over the week, having already defeated West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand in consecutive ODI series since October last year.

The pacers group has dominated batting line-ups like never before, taking a combined 62 wickets at 18.48 average and 22.80 strike-rate this year. They have also collectively taken four wickets or more in an innings six times already, the most for any calendar year. All this while playing only nine ODIs this year.

Nahid Rana has been on the forefront of this transformation, with 20 wickets this year. He took four wickets in the first ODI against Australia, who struggled to tackle his 145kph-plus speed on accurate lengths. Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman supported Rana with their regular wickets. Shoriful Islam, who was belatedly picked in the third game, took career-best figures of 6 for 48, taking Bangladesh really close to a win.

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While the fast bowlers have led the way, Bangladesh's batters have also shown much improvement, particularly in the middle-order. Mosaddek Hossain was adjudged player-of-the-match in his return to the side after four years. He struck two vital half-centuries, while Najmul Hossain Shanto and Tawhid Hridoy have contributed in this series.

Bangladesh however didn't find much consistency from their openers, having to drop Saif Hassan after the first ODI. Saif has struggled to find his feet in ODIs, having played seven matches recently, scoring only 122 runs. Tanzid Hasan was all the rage against Pakistan, but he too has tapered off recently. Soumya Sarkar, replacing Saif, struck the ball well in the second game against Australia, but couldn't show consistency in the third game.

"Every position in our team now has competition," Mehidy said. "We have three openers in our squad. We have given opportunity in the previous ODI series (against New Zealand), giving them a different position at times. We wanted to check their suitability. I felt that playing two openers in the top order is the better option. There's competition within the top order.

"Soumya Sarkar couldn't continue despite performing (against West Indies last year). Now he is back in his old position as an opener. The team will get much better if there's competition for places among players. It will keep everyone hungry, which always helps your consistency. I think the players are hungry, and they are preparing themselves."

Mehidy said that changing the type of pitch was one of the biggest decisions that the leadership group has taken in recent years. He said that the surfaces switch probably caught the touring Australians by surprise. When Australia toured for Tests and T20Is in 2017 and 2021 respectively, Australia were met with raging turners.

"The three captains of the respective formats are in constant conversation about developing Bangladesh cricket. We discuss on the areas that need improvement. One of the first things we did was change the type of wickets on which we play. We want to play on sporting pitches.

"I think everyone including the Australians thought we would be producing spin tracks. We put out true, sporting wickets. We trusted every player that if we play well, we will get the results. We backed the team," he said.

Mehidy said that the ultimate goal is to do well in World Cups or the Asia Cup, where Bangladesh have been perennial underperformers. They have often complained in the past about the poor wickets at home that consequently make it tougher to adjust to better wickets abroad, particularly in these tournaments.

"Playing on sporting wickets in recent times is part of a bigger plan," Mehidy said. "We have major tournaments coming up so we want to gain confidence playing on good surfaces. I think it worked for us pretty well, as many of our players are high on confidence. The batters found runs and bowlers got wickets. I believe that the more we plan on sporting wickets, our improvement will be rapid."

Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84

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