Onus on batsmen in final T20I
Prior to the start of the five-match T20I series against Australia, there were not many who would have thought that Bangladesh could go on to win the series with two games in hand despite the fact that the visitors were without some of their top batsmen.
In fact, expectations mostly concerned whether the Tigers could snatch a first-ever win against Australia in the shortest format after losing all four T20Is between the sides in the past.
"I guess the strategy worked for us last night (Saturday). Ashton Turner was able to bowl his four overs, that meant we've got 12 overs of spin. This is something that gave us success in the last match, which we could've done earlier. Also, different types of scenarios can bring different results. Like I said, it's high time to think what the results could've been if we played the extra spinners, it did the work for us last night and potentially that could work looking forward."
Credit must go to the Tigers think-tank for showing the urge and hunger to strive for more once after they managed to win the first T20I with a lot of authority in their first-ever five-match T20I bilateral series against Australia.
Bangladesh managed to utilise the pitch and home conditions to great effect and exploited the visitors' weakness by preparing a slow, turning surface which kept the visitors guessing most of the time.
With a scoring rate of 5.86, this series has already become the slowest T20I series of at least three matches that has ever been played.
One can ask questions about whether playing on such pitches at home can help Bangladesh become a better opposition in the shortest format when they play in different conditions -- keeping the upcoming World T20 in mind -- where batsmen mostly dominate proceedings.
Aside from that, it was also important for Bangladesh to gain in confidence, which happens through wins, whether they come against Zimbabwe on seam-friendly tracks or at slow pitches at home against Australia. Bangladesh will definitely take this series win with both hands.
There is no scope to undermine the historic series win and interestingly none of the Australian cricketers have complained about the surface's unusual behavior. Instead, the Aussies took this as a great learning experience ahead of their World Cup campaign.
But despite the Tigers sealing the series, the team management opted to make no changes to the winning combination in the fourth T20I, which came as a surprise for many, who would have hoped Bangladesh team management would test their depth in the last two games.
Bangladesh's bowlers also deserve tremendous credit for being able to execute their plans, with the Tigers making and breaking records of successfully defending their lowest total twice in four games.
With the fifth and final game of the series coming up, the focus will now shift to the Tigers batting department, which desperately needs to gain some confidence.
It is pretty obvious that the pitches have not offered runs freely. Mahmudullah Riyad's fifty in the third game was actually the only time a Bangladesh batsman was able to reach that mark in four matches.
Wins always provide confidence to Bangladesh as a unit, but it will be important to see how they use that confidence in taking up challenges over the coming days and that will also be an area to ponder for the team management.