Bangladesh, with their core group of players, have put up some great performances over the last few years. From playing their first-ever semifinal at a major ICC event, to registering their maiden Test victories and ODI series wins against some of the strongest teams in the game, that group of players has always led the team from the front.

However, one issue that has been disturbing the Tigers in the recent times is their junior players’ inability to make decisive contribution at times. Many new faces failed to cement their place in the team leaving the big responsibilities up to the seniors. Hence, the core group of the team had to show their true mettle whenever the youngsters fumbled with the situation.

Players like Soumya Sarkar and Mustafizur Rahman were the ones whose match-winning abilities had been highlighted when Bangladesh emerged as ‘almost invincible’ on their home soil following the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. Both, however, failed to meet the expectations at the later stages. While Soumya’s lack of form turned him into an irregular face in the national side, Mustafizur started facing the inevitable circumstances that almost every fast-bowler goes through — injuries.

If we set the Man of the Match award as a parameter to assess the best performer from the Bangladesh team in the post 2015 World Cup period, then these two players are the most successful among the newcomers, with each winning the award thrice. And while the likes of Mehidy Hasan, Liton Das, and Sabbir Rahman accounted for four such honors, the fab four of Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mahmudullah Riyad just kept showing how much the team depends on them by sharing a total of 20 Man of the Match awards between themselves in the last three and a half years.

During Bangladesh’s recently-concluded tour of West Indies and the USA, Tamim, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur, and Mahmudullah contributed a staggering 71 per cent of all the runs Bangladesh scored. The four senior batsmen also scored eight out of the 10 half-centuries, while eight of Bangladesh's best young batsmen could muster only 369 runs in 29 innings combined in all three formats.

It is true that this set of senior players are bringing success for the team on a regular basis, but it goes without saying that such dependency does have unpleasant consequences.

One doesn’t even need to take a long walk down the memory lane to reminisce one such unpleasing phase in the Tigers’ camp. We have all seen how Bangladesh suffered against Sri Lanka earlier this year with key man Shakib Al Hasan sidelined due to an injury midway through the tri-nation series involving Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

Every team suffer more or less when one of their players is ruled out for an injury. But how often do we see a team, lose their grip on a contest because of this?

"It is true that our juniors are not making their presence felt,"chief selector Minhajul Abedin told Cricfrenzy. "We have to make sure they also start taking responsibilities as it is not a fact those seniors will always perform."

Bangladesh have started a new chapter under head coach Steve Rhodes, reviving their ‘good (not-so-)old days’ in limited-overs cricket. And with one or two influential players of the team who might consider calling time on their careers within the next few years, the sub continental team have realized that they should be investing time in the potential young performers instead of maintaining a highly-demanding and clueless rotation policy.