Bangladesh had their most successful T20 World Cup in 2024 and yet were left with a bitter taste as the tournament could have been much more than what it was by the time it ended.
Bangladesh managed three wins in seven games against Sri Lanka, Netherlands, and Nepal, while they lost to South Africa, Australia, India, and Afghanistan.
Ahead of the tournament, the hopes of them doing well were slim as they had unconvincingly beat Zimbabwe 4-1 in a five-match home series before a 2-1 series defeat to USA, leading to questions of whether they can qualify for the Super Eight stage.
However, a win over Sri Lanka in the first game ensured their campaign was off with a victory 鈥� although not a convincing one 鈥� and then in New York, Bangladesh added another game to their never-ending list of agonising defeats as they lost to South Africa by four runs chasing 114.
Wins in their final two group stage games ensured that Bangladesh qualified for the Super Eight stage but once they were there, they conceded hapless defeats to Australia and India without any fight.
However, Australia lost two games on the trot to give the Tigers a sniff at reaching the semis, they just had to chase down 116 in 12.1 overs.
Bangladesh did not even try and ended up losing by eight runs to Afghanistan, who qualified for the final four.
This ended the Bangladesh campaign, which could have been extended to the semi-finals but the team refused to go for it, which ended in their early exit.
Courtesy of the final game, the campaign has now turned into a failure for the Tigers as they did have a chance to create history and did not take it, instead went for a safe option and failed at that too.
Their batting order was disappointing throughout the tournament. The veterans 鈥� Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah 鈥� failed to make use of any of their experience, while youngster Tanzid Hasan Tamim added another tournament to his list of failures after the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Liton Das started the tournament with 36 runs against Sri Lanka and ended with a fifty but did nothing in between, while skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto scored a few runs here and there with little impact.
Towhid Hridoy was the only batter who showed some modern T20 batting for Bangladesh but after a bright start, his form fizzled out at the back end of the tournament as well.
The biggest positive for Bangladesh in the tournament would be Rishad Hossain. Leg-spin is an underappreciated art in the country but the youngster made sure to make it the talk of the town, picking up 14 wickets 鈥� the most for Bangladesh in the tournament 鈥� and claiming praise from around the world.
Tanzim Hasan Sakib was another bright spark for them as he picked up 11 wickets and regularly gave Bangladesh wickets with the new ball.
All of those positives, though, come to a halt at the same point of Bangladesh not charging for the semis against the Afghans. If they did and lost, this tournament would have still been a net positive for them.
They did not, and it was not.