It’s not about Big Five, It’s all about team: Rhodes
Photo - Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
When the Bangladeshi people seemed to have engrossed with the ‘Big Five’ of Bangladesh cricket, the team’s head coach Steve Rhodes said it’s all about team effort that helped them get over the line against West Indies in the ODI series.
Rhodes was full of praise of the performance of the likes of Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and Mehidy Hasan Miraj, Mustafizur Rahman, stating that they came of age to show their capability in the series, which Bangladesh finally grabbed with 2-1, following a crushing eight-wicket victory in the series-deciding third game.
Mehidy Hasan Miraj claimed his career best 4-29 while Soumya hammered a six-filled 80 runs knock to make the chase a one-way traffic.
Popularly dubbed as ‘Big Five’ or ‘Feb Five’—Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad also stood tall in clinching the series but Rhodes insisted that others performance shouldn't be go unnoticed.
“I think that it’s really important also in the media that we understand that we’re a team of 11 players and a squad of 15, 16. I think that will also take a bit of pressure off our younger players, and also senior players. “Hold on, we’re not five, we’re 11 or even 15 or 20”. So I think the good thing for Bangladesh though is that we are starting to get some depth and that will help us moving forward,” Rhodes said on Saturday after Bangladesh completed the mission of winning the ODI series following their Test triumph over West Indies.
However Rhodes has no reservation about the people’s liking to the Big Five but he said that it should be termed as a team effort. According to Rhodes, it would be unfair that the talk of Big Five always put a shed on the performance of the other players.
“It’s wonderful. I know why people talk about the Big Five. I don’t because I know we are a team and a squad,” he said.
“You (people) mentioned there about some of the players. The form of Mehedi Hasan Miraz is incredible. He has bowled really well yesterday and he has done well in all formats. He is a great example of a player as an all-rounder standing up, as an all-rounder. Remember he opened the batting in the Asia Cup final and did a good job. Soumya has come back in and did really well. Liton Das is a really dangerous player and has done well in the big matches. There are many more that are contributing,” he said.
“No one talks about Fizz and how good he is in one-day cricket and one of the best death bowlers in the world. Does he get in that five? I am not sure (laughs).
