||CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim believes that Tigers can perform even without big names as he feels they have a solid bunch of cricketers to fill the shoes of any stars.

 Bangladesh created a slice of history, beating India for the first time in any format of cricket at Indian soil.
Since their elevation to Test cricket in 2000, Bangladesh though beat India five times in ODI cricket, none of their victories came in Indian soil.
 
The closer they came to beat India was in T20 format in 2016 at Bangalore during the World T20. Bangladesh needed just two runs in three balls to seal the deal but both Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad played a manic shot to throw their wicket in consecutive deliveries and Bangladesh lost the game by one run.
 
After that match, this was Bangladesh’s first T20 game in India and in first attempt they amended that mistake, beating India by seven wickets.
 
Victory can’t come timelier for Bangladesh as they were going through some internal problems in the last one month. The player strike was in the headline in the media in the last ten days and Shakib Al Hasan ban worsened the situation more.

While they also missed the service of Tamim Iqbal as he opted to rule himself out citing personal issues while they also missed the service of Mohammad Saifuddin as he was nursing back injury.

But Bangladesh put all problems into beds and put up a commanding performance against India on the back of Mushfiqur brilliant batting along with some time contribution by the youngster that helped them beat India in T20 cricket after eight successive losses.

Bangladesh always play well when their back is against the wall as they had beaten New Zealand for the first time in ODI cricket in 2008 when country’s cricket was trying to recover from the ICL exodus.

 Most of the main cricketers of Bangladesh that time joined BCCI and ICC-banned ICL to face 10-year punishment and during that time Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal took the onus and made Bangladesh a force to reckon with.

This time round Afif Hossain and Aminul Islam bowled brilliantly to help Tigers restrict their opponent under a sizeable total while Soumya Sarkar also left his mark with some valuable contribution with the bat.

‘’Shakib is a very big cricketer for us. We always miss him. Tamim is also a very big part. They won many matches single-handedly. We always miss them. But it is also a sig that Bangladesh can win without them. Even without me or Riyad, I believe Bangladesh can perform,’’ Mushfiqur told reporters
 
‘’We always try to win. It doesn’t happen every time. But this is part of cricket. We didn’t have our main two players but young players performed there. They tried to grab the opportunity. Naim, Biplob, Afif everyone played well. People don’t remember these wins. But they remember the defeats. As a part of Bangladesh team, we know where we are heading. We are in the right track,’’ he said.

Mushfiqur thanked the coach for allowing the youngster to explore by giving them the confidence and he feels that if they manage to perform in this manner these youngsters can achieve in eight years what they have achieved in 15 years.