NZ T20Is a dress rehearsal for the future

Bangladesh cricket is nearing a transition period as the fantastic five of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad are all in their mid to late 30s.

Now is the time to prepare for the vacuum that will be created when these stalwarts, inevitably, leave the scene.

The selectors have already moved on from Mashrafe, who retired from T20Is in 2017 and quit the ODI captaincy in March last year, giving opportunities to young seamers like Hasan Mahmud and Shoriful Islam and handing over the captaincy to Tamim.

Apart from Mashrafe the four others are still expected to go on playing till the 2023 World Cup as well as in the longest format, fitness and performance permitting.

However, with Tamim set to miss the three-match T20I series against the Kiwis due to personal reasons and Shakib having skipped the tour for the birth of his third child, the time has come for the selectors to inject fresh faces in the T20 format.

Despite being the most successful batsman for Bangladesh across all formats, perhaps Tamim is also assessing his game when it comes to the shortest format. It would not be surprising if he makes way to allow youngsters to settle in.

Shakib on the other hand is arguably the most effective T20 cricketer that Bangladesh have ever produced but the star all-rounder is picking and choosing which games he plays. Shakib had earlier asked for a break from the upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka scheduled for April to take part in the Indian Premier League, and the BCB had granted his request.

Now, the main challenge for the Bangladesh think tank is to act keeping the long-term view in mind and start preparing the next lot of cricketers who could take responsibility for the Tigers' future and transform themselves into the new seniors.

Even Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hassan had stated recently that cricketers who are not interested to play a specific format need to inform the board so that selectors can form the squad with a long-term view.

Much like Shakib and Tamim, Mushfiqur or Mahmudullah also falls in the same category and might start prioritising their game and choose to play a specific format in the coming days keeping their fitness in mind. Like any other cricketing nation Bangladesh cricket will also face the vacuum when these seniors eventually make way in future.

T20 cricket requires energy and excitement and the likes of Naim Sheikh, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das have got the potential, which has been reflected in the past. But these players also need faith, freedom and time from the board, selectors, team management and also from spectators so the new lot of cricketers can grow in confidence, which has been the one thing found missing over the years.

Bangladesh will be without their two poster boys Shakib and Tamim in the upcoming three match T20I series against New Zealand, which follows the ODI series. While Shakib and Tamim's absence always poses a challenge for the Tigers, one good omen could be that the Tigers won their last T20I without the duo convincingly by nine wickets against Zimbabwe back in March 2020.