Bangladesh had viewed their five-match Twenty20 International series against Zimbabwe as an opportunity to prepare for their upcoming T20 World Cup campaign in West Indies and USA聽but聽as聽the series concluded on Sunday, it was hard to find a net positive for the Tigers.
Bangladesh won the series 4-1, winning four games straight before losing the final one.
However, the series, at least from a batting perspective, did not meet the levels聽that聽are聽required聽at the highest level聽as聽the Bangladesh batters performed in bits and pieces rather than as a unit.
Liton Das failed to find form and聽was subsequently dropped聽after the third game, and while聽Tanzid Hasan Tamim hit two fifties and Soumya Sarkar showed signs of some form in the two games he played, Bangladesh are yet to sort out who their openers are for the World Cup as Tanzid鈥檚 whole T20I career is just this series and Soumya has returned from an injury.
Skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto scored聽just聽81 runs in five innings with a strike rate of just 103.84, adding to their batting problems.
While Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah, and Jaker Ali Anik showed signs of hope, only Towhid聽among them聽scored with a strike rate near 150 [147.36], with the other two striking below 140.
In the bowling department, the confirmed names in the XI 鈥� Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, and Shakib Al Hasan 鈥� did well聽but聽Taskin聽suffering an injury during the series means he is now in danger of missing the World Cup.
However, those who are supposed to provide cover to those mainstays did not have a good series.
Mohammad Saifuddin picked up eight wickets in four games聽but聽his economy was 9.31, which skyrocketed courtesy of conceding 55 in the final聽game.
Tanzim Hasan Sakib was also expensive, going at 8.5 runs per over.
Across the five matches, the highest Bangladesh could muster was 165-5, and in the rest of the matches, their batting performance looked subpar as it never looked like they were aiming to go big when they batted first, something they might need to do in the World Cup.
Despite the evident under-par display, skipper Shanto was pretty happy with the outing,聽especially聽because of the close matches they won.
鈥楾here are聽lots of聽positives from this series聽and聽we could almost reach what we hoped to achieve,鈥� he said on Sunday.
鈥榃e won a couple of close matches that we needed because we will face such scenarios in the future. We practised how聽we would聽plan and execute at those聽times,聽and whether we can stay calm.鈥�
However, the Bangladesh captain hoped聽that the top-order would do better聽in the coming days.
鈥業f the top-order can bat well,聽then聽it will be good for the team. The momentum is聽very important聽for the team. We should think ahead instead of聽thinking too much聽[about this series]. If we can get a good start,聽then聽the team will be ahead,鈥� Shanto said.