Bangladesh’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the World Cup was Mahmudullah Riyad, despite a very dismal campaign.
With only two victories in nine games, the Tigers’ World Cup performance was the lowest it has been since 2007. Despite the team’s dismal performance, Mahmudullah, who was only added to the World Cup roster as a result of the other players’ ineptitude, maintained his composure.
He participated in eight games and amassed 328 runs at a reasonable 54.66 average, easily leading all Bangladeshi batters in scoring. He also had an excellent strike rate of 91.62, which was only second highest after Tanzid Hasan Tamim’s 95.39.
But what made it special for Riyad is that he is the only centurion for Bangladesh in this edition. And with two tons in 2015, Riyad now has three World Cup centuries, also highest for Bangladesh. Shakib Al Hasan with two centuries, both of which came in 2019 World Cup, is in the second in the ladder.
Liton Das finished second with 284 runs and his 284 is highest for any Bangladeshi opener in the World Cup history. But still this is considered as failure as the teams had high hopes on him. He struck two half-centuries. Vice captain Najmul Hossain Shanto is in the third position with 222 runs, followed by Mushfiqur Rahim (202) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (201). There are only five batters of Bangladesh who went past 200 runs in this World Cup.
With 186 runs, Shakib Al Hasan, who had a World Cup campaign in 2019 that broke records, came in sixth. With his 11 wickets, Shakib became the only player in World Cup history to have both 500+ runs and 10+ wickets. He finished the previous World Cup as the third-highest run scorer with 606 runs. But during this World Cup, he was a shadow of the man.
Shakib’s terrible performance during the World Cup was a major factor.
Off spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz and left arm pacer Shoriful Islam were the joint highest wicket-taker for Bangladesh in this World Cup with 10 wickets. Miraz played nine matches while Shoriful played eight.
Shakib Al Hasan took nine wickets in seven matches while Mahedi Hasan claimed six in three matches. The biggest disappointment in bowling department was Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed who took five wickets each playing eight and seven matches respectively. Shoriful though took 10 wickets, his impact and effectiveness were highly low. In fact all Bangladesh bowlers, sans Shakib, could not make any impact in any game. Shakib’s three-wicket haul against Afghanistan in the first match was a match-winning performance.
