Mehidy Hasan Miraz admits the pressure of ranking after Bangladesh's ODI series win against Pakistan

The Bangladesh captain said not rotating their fast bowlers was done not to take any chances.

Updated on: Mar 16, 2026, 14:10:56 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz understands Bangladesh need to do well in ODIs going forward to be able to qualify automatically for the World Cup next year. The Bangla Tigers have made a good start, keeping that in mind. On Sunday, they beat Pakistan in the third ODI to take the series 2-1 to bolster their chances.

It was a tough assignment but Bangladesh gave a good account of themselves. (AFP)

Bangladesh went into the series as the 10th-ranked team in the world, and not many gave them a chance to beat the fourth-ranked Pakistan, but the home team took advantage of their conditions to condemn the visitors to a series loss. Of course, they also played well.

Also Read: Why so much fuss over Virat Kohli's remark? Virender Sehwag was undoubtedly a better T20 opener than Sachin Tendulkar

As things stand, the top 8 teams automatically qualify for the World Cup. The deadline is March 31 next year. The fact that Zimbabwe, at present No.11, are the co-hosts, along with South Africa, has made things trickier for Bangladesh to that end. Zimbabwe will play in the tournament anyway on the basis of their hosting privilege.

Hasan Miraz said that's why they didn't rotate their fast bowlers because considering their position in the ranking at present, he didn't want to take any chances.

"We went into the match with our best bowling options. Mustafiz, Taskin and Rana have been bowling really well. Taskin gave us turning points in the match with his wickets. Otherwise, we would have lost the match. We had planned to give players full opportunities, as we believe it gives us a better chance to win matches.

“We have to keep our ranking points in mind. It is most important for us in the coming days. It will help us in automatic qualification for the World Cup in 2027. We are focused on winning matches and winning series.”

Bangladeshi pacers deliver!

Nahid Rana, Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman featured in all three games and played a crucial role in Bangladesh’s win. They all combined for 19 wickets, with Player-of-the-Series Rana taking a fifer in the opening game which Bangladesh comfortably won. Then in the last game, Taskin Ahmed took wickets at crucial times to push the visitors into the abyss of defeat.

"Taskin is among our most experienced cricketers. He is a really hard-working cricketer who uses his experience. Taskin knows what to bowl in each situation. He knows how to motivate himself. Mustafiz never panicked despite getting hit for two sixes. He kept coming back. I think we have to give value to such experienced cricketers.

“I think Nahid Rana bowled very well, especially if you consider that he was making a comeback into the side," Hasan Miraz said.

Bangladesh should overtake 9th-placed West Indies in the ranking when the ICC releases it later this week.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

Get live cricket scores, match updates, schedules, results and ICC rankings. Follow the latest news, statistics and performances of top teams and players on Hindustan Times.