The analysis of the Bangladeshi T20 squad, I can already tell you, is as useless as analysing the weather over here in Canada. No matter which way you look at it, it is always friggin’ cold. Or it could be because I am no expert. I am merely a fan and an avid supporter of my countrymen; ones who make me cringe, cry and cuss all at the same time.

But let’s attempt at least a decent sized post on this shall we? To make it slightly lengthy, let’s start with naming the squad. No, not vertically. That would be cheating.

Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim (vice-capt/wk), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Syed Rasel, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Jahurul Islam (wk)

Notice, Ashraful’s name is in bold. Why? Because I am horrified at his return. They say good things come in small packages. But in Ashraful’s case, the package is so small that it seems to be suffocating every bit of his talent and melting his brain. We Bangladeshis don’t spend time talking about Ashraful anymore. He may be our key player, he may be not. Either way, we are past the point of caring unless he goes a solid 10 years without screwing up. That is the penalty for putting us through all he has.

Who are our key players you ask? Well, to be honest, we don’t know. In the current domestic T20 National Cricket League, Imrul and Tamim are the top two run scorers. The only other player in the top 10 from this squad is Naeem Islam. Recent heroes Mahmudullah and Shakib are somewhere far, far below a respectable number considering their standards (Shakib, at his age, will not have it any easier with the additional responsibilities of captaincy). Maybe they are just conserving their energy for the Caribbean, but truthfully, we haven’t even figured out our ODI combination yet and found our test squad only about a month ago...we hope. So, we don’t have a T20 team. We do know how to play “wham bam thank you ma’am” type cricket though, so expect a lot of fireworks and then, a loss.

Do I sound too cynical? It is because as a Bangladeshi fan I have learnt not to get ahead of myself. We have no winning combinations, but we might still pull off a win. The Caribbean has been extremely lucky for us after all, but we are more unpredictable than the T20 game itself. So I will celebrate only AFTER the result has gone in our favour, and I will only be positive when we start winning consistently, not because of luck, but because we made it happen. I don’t see that happening in this World Cup.

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( Purna Hassan pretends to be a lot of things but is actually just a cricket lover and nothing else. She has been watching cricket ever since she can remember and is an avid supporter of Bangladesh and South Africa, which also means that she is frequently heart-broken and angry. She dislikes Stuart Broad immensely. Purna also blogs at cricketminded.blogspot.com )