Since the 2015 World Cup win against England, Bangladesh cricket has risen up the ranks, as they have won most of their home series since that win.
Defeating England last year, a series level in all formats against Sri Lanka this year and now rising to the number sixth spot in the ODI rankings have been the biggest achievements for them.
Bangladesh have performed better than what was expected from them and now the time has come when they have to show their glory in front of the champions in ICC tournaments,
“That’s how it goes, you know. When your team is winning games, when your team is playing better cricket people will notice you, people will respect you. And we deserve the respect we are getting. As a team, we have come up a long way. That time we were ranked 10th, now we are ranked sixth. As I told you before, it didn’t come easy. We had to go through a lot of lost matches, hard work and criticism as well. But the last two years has been brilliant for Bangladesh cricket. [We are] probably one of the most successful teams in the world if you see in the last two years,” said Bangladesh opener Tamil Iqbal.
Bangladesh will take up England’s challenge on June 1 when they face the hosts in the first game of the tournament. They will have their eye on the cup like other seven teams and Iqbal knows the fact that the team has to do a lot to be consistent at this level,
“We just need to carry on those things and keep on improving. We know one thing that we need to improve a hell of a lot is to be consistent in international cricket and beat good teams like India, England or Pakistan. We have to keep improving and that’s what we are looking for.
“We’ve done well against [England], but they are playing in home conditions and they have some serious individual players as well. If we want to repeat the result again, we have to be on top of our game in all departments because England is a very, very strong team,” Tamim opined.
Bangladesh has a big challenge ahead of them, as the first thing they need is that senior players should stand up. Apart from that, they also have a mental pressure, as that they have qualified for the tournament after a brief period of 11 years and to deal with it is another challenge for them.
Apart from facing the Three Lions, Bangladesh will take on two-time champions Australia and New Zealand in their other league matches.