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Champions Trophy 2025
'Inspiration' for Shanto, a point for Tigers
Fri Feb 28, 2025 12:43 AM Last update on: Fri Feb 28, 2025 12:48 AM
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Before leaving Dhaka for the ICC Champions Trophy, Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto
had boldly announced his grand goal of bringing the trophy home, raising many eyebrows.
Shanto's lofty claims fell flat in the tournament after his side lost their opening two games to
India and New Zealand and were already out of the running for a spot in the semifinals with one
match to go.
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The Tigers were supposed to play for pride against Pakistan in a dead rubber Group A match
yesterday but the game got washed out with no toss due to heavy rain in Rawalpindi.
The wash out handed Bangladesh their only point in the campaign and owing to a better net run
rate, they edged Pakistan and finished third in Group A.
And just like that, another global event ended in utter disappointment for the Tigers, with the
players having nothing to show for other than a point which they didn't even earn.
But even after such an underwhelming campaign, captain Shanto is choosing to see the positives
from the two convincing defeats instead of eating his words.
"The way we held the game for long periods of the game was very inspiring for us in the two
matches. We hope we can learn from our mistakes," Shanto said in the presentation after the
washed-out contest against Pakistan.
The long-held games Shanto was speaking about were the matches against India and New
Zealand, which the Tigers lost by six and five wickets with 21 and 23 balls to spare respectively.
Shanto, perhaps, was trying to laud his bowlers for showing some fight in both contests after the
batters put up a paltry total and also spoke how their failure to rotate the strike hurt them in both
games.
"We have always struggled with our fast bowling unit, but in the last few years a lot of fast
bowlers are coming through.
"We have to think about strike rotation. It is very important and I hope the boys will understand
what we need to do," he added.
However, for a team that has been a Test-playing nation for quarter of a century, have taken part
in 22 major ICC events but are still nowhere near conquering the summit, talks about
improvements in pace attack and trying to improve rotating strike sound cheap.
Unlike Shanto, the fans in Rawalpindi did not have the same glass half-full approach after two of
the three scheduled matches in their city got rained out.
"All people waited for a long time to see an ICC event but right now they are disappointed for not
having games due to rain," said Pakistani photo journalist Mian Zaman, who had worked in
Rawalpindi when the venue hosted three games in the 1996 World Cup. If the fans in Rawalpindi
had the same approach to life as Shanto, perhaps they would be happy thinking at least they got
to see one match out of three.
Related topic:
Najmul Hossain Shanto
ICC Champions Trophy 2025
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