Tigers' time to seal perfect year
The final T20I at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today will draw the curtain on a series that Bangladesh, expectedly so, dominated with ease. It will also bring an end to what was arguably Bangladesh's best ever year in international cricket, before leading the cricketers to the third season of the Bangladesh Premier League.
The Tigers have overcome several barriers this year and if they can win the final match of the tour today they will have achieved another first: a 2-0 T20I series win over a full-member nation.
It may sound a bit odd, but the fact remains that Bangladesh have never beaten a full-member twice in a T20I series. The only time they won more than a single match in a T20I series was back in 2012 when they beat Ireland 3-0.
A win today will also provide them with their second T20I series victory this year, following the 1-0 win over Pakistan in April.
However, as witnessed in the last match, the task isn't going to be easy. Bangladesh's batsmen struggled to chase Zimbabwe's below-par score on Friday with almost every batsman focusing entirely on smacking boundaries. Skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza later admitted that his batsmen didn't bat according to the plan and that they were 'rushing themselves'.
With the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20 looming, the hosts will hope that they can get their batting act together as soon as possible. While the bowlers did put up a decent show, they were under fire for a brief period when Malcolm Waller was at the crease.
As far as changes are concerned, the hosts may look to bring in Arafat Sunny in place of Jubair Hossain. While the young leg-spinner scalped two wickets in his first game, he was extremely nervous in his first over and had given away 17 runs. It's unlikely for the team management to make any other changes to the side.
The Zimbabweans on the contrary will hope that their batting clicks. They had lost three wickets within the first four overs in the last game and couldn't rebuild from there. What is perhaps worrisome for the visitors is that they kind of made it easy for the Bangladeshi bowlers to pick up their scalps.
All that the hosts did was bowl a good line and length and the visitors, attempting extravagant hits, ended up failing. As the visitors take to the Mirpur field for one last time, they will hope that they can end this tour on a high. They don't have to look too far for inspiration. All they need to do is have a look at Waller's 68-run knock, an innings which included some of the cleanest hits against Bangladesh's spinners.