I was looking at my cricket channel a few days ago and they were showing highlights of the 2003 WC game between Bangladesh and NZ, one of the openers was no other than Ash. He scored 56 runs and the little guy looked so happy there. He took a lovely catch of mahmud's bowling, and he ran to Mahmud and gave him a spontaneous hug. One could see that he was a teenager.
I heard that world cup was a nightmare for BD.
I agree that BCB used him too much in his early years in international matches, and they experimented with him in the batting order, I think he should play at 4 or 5.
He still has the same strokeplay, also IMO since Siddons came as coach, his batting has deterioted, because Siddons is trying to change his style of batting, he should leave him alone, just tell him not to loft the balls in the air.At this stage, he cannot change, the damage has already been done, he should have played more first class cricket and played in the A team for a few years, but was elevated to test and international player too quickly. Not only this, but expectations of him was too high, and he has failed to meet fan's expectations, also mentally, he was never ready at such an early age.He knows that he has failed, and one can see his frustration, e.g. slapping a disgruntled fan etc.
England has many loyal fans who follow them around the world when they are playing whether they win or lose, they have the loyal support of their fans. and England is slated at N07 in the ICC ranking and they have been playing cricket since the 1830
Now, after watching that match, it was not a bad performance and only one player has survived in the national team and that is Ashraful. In 4 years all the others have gone, so who knows what will happen by the tme the next world cup comes around.
Hopefully, Siddons says that he will keep a squad together for 2 years and let them play together, which is a good plan.
When Southee made a quick test 50 for NZ, they also highlighted that Mohamad Ashraful made the second fastest 50 in test cricket at Dhaka.
In as much as he has failed more often than succeed, he has some notable records to his name, BD cannot forget that he has made them win matches against the top 2 teams in the world, so I hope fans do not write him off as a has been already.
He is still young and will improve.
I hope that I do not annoy some fans here in my defense of Ash, but one has to look at the whole forest and not a few trees.
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