When cricket is not on television, the bored minds of cricket writers produce things like these. After all, our minds are always contemplating on the ifs and buts and like to ponder in that world for as long as we can.

So in one such sojourn to the world of fantasy, this thought arose in my mind: what if the captain of the Bangladesh national team, Mashrafe Mortaza, played for India? Before anyone abuses me and my whole family for making them think this, let me make it clear that this is just a hypothesis and we THANK God that the 34-year-old is a Bangladeshi because we all love Mashrafe and can’t imagine a Bangladesh without him.

Anyways, without further ado, here are the 5 things that could have happened if Mashrafe played for India.

#1 Better handling of his knee

I am on the fence for this one. After all, the likes of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel consistently suffered from injuries in their time in the national team. However, I will still go out of my way and make this claim.

When Mashrafe was in his younger years and was just breaking into the team, the Bangladesh team weren’t as strong as it is now. The infrastructure, too, wasn’t as great as it is now—and let’s not even get to the handling of players part.

Despite having relatively fragile knees, the selectors chose to overlook it and play him constantly instead of conditioning Mashrafe’s knees and making them stronger—something that has made his life harder now—and that is something the Indian management would have looked after better.  

#2 More team titles

This might hurt the fans—it is hurting me now—but it is the truth. In Mashrafe’s career span, India have won the T20I World Cup, Asia Cup, the Champions Trophy and the biggest of them all, the World Cup in 2011—and Mashrafe could have won some of them.

While Bangladesh have made huge strides in the past few years, it is unlikely that Mashrafe could win a trophy with Bangladesh in his timespan with the nation—even though I hope I am wrong on this one—as his injuries might not allow him to play for a longer period.

#3 Hated by Bangladeshi fans

To think that our beloved Mashrafe would be hated by Bangladeshis is something that blows the minds out of proportion, but the truth is that if he played for India, he would have been disliked by the majority of Bangladeshi fans.

Even the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are often the subject of abuse from some quarters of the Bangladeshi fanbase, which goes on to speak volumes about the amount of animosity that lies between the two nations’ fanbase.

#4 Dhoni wouldn’t have been captain

MS Dhoni is a great captain, but the truth is that he also had a great team under his disposal. However, if Mashrafe played for India, then he would have been the successor to the throne left by Sourav Ganguly.

While Dhoni might be calm and composed under all circumstances, Mashrafe is the polar opposite as he drives the team with his zeal and fervor—something akin to Virat Kohli’s style now. And going by the way India have been playing under Kohli’s leadership, it is safe to assume that Mashrafe would have been a successful captain with the India team as well.

After all, this is a man that has led a once-minnow Bangladesh team to new heights—now we are not minnows anymore, and that is thanks to Mashrafe Mortaza’s leadership.