Najmul Hossain Shanto's stellar year

Bangladesh started the year pretty decently with a highly competitive ODI series and a T20I clean sweep over world champions England. The end has been rosy too as they beat New Zealand in a home Test, an away ODI and T20I each - all for the first time - in the month of December. But the period in between was chaotic to say the least.

They had a spectacularly poor World Cup and leading up to that, they lost two home ODI series. In an indifferent year, there have not been many prolific performers for Bangladesh in 2023. 

Shoriful Islam has emerged as a much-improved bowler, Towhid Hridoy and Mushfiqur Rahim started the year well but sort of fizzled out, Shakib Al Hasan had a decent - if not great - all-round year, so did Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Taskin Ahmed had a great first half of the year and Taijul Islam made his presence felt towards the end of the year.

But there's one player who has truly taken his game to the next level this year. Najmul Hossain Shanto started 2023 as probably Bangladesh's most under-fire cricketer but scripted one of the great comeback stories in Bangladesh cricket in a space of 12 months. 

In January-February, Shanto lit up the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), becoming the first Bangladeshi batter to score 500 or more runs in a single season. The southpaw was also named the Player of the Tournament. 

But he had a point to prove in international cricket. At the start of 2023, Shanto had only seven fifty-plus scores in 72 innings after five years of international cricket. Pressure was on him from fans, media and everywhere else to score runs. 

Bangladesh played England in a white-ball series right after the BPL and it played a part in Shanto's career revival. The left-hander hit two half-centuries in the ODI series and was named the player of the T20I series after a sensational display.

In Bangladesh's reverse series against Ireland in the UK, Shanto won a Player of the Series award yet again, this time in ODIs. 

Bangladesh played the Asia Cup along with other Asian powerhouses as part of preparation ahead of the World Cup. When Shanto was ruled out of the tournament after two games with an injury, he was the competition's top run-getter.

His exploits over those few months elevated him to the vice-captain's role for the World Cup and he was given the opportunity to lead the side in the New Zealand ODIs before the tournament. 

The World Cup was a disappointing tournament for Shanto and Bangladesh. He started the tournament well with a fifty but a string of single-digit scores after that raised questions. 

But he was able to bury the World Cup ghosts somewhat when he led from the front in a historic Test win over New Zealand in Sylhet. Then in a space of just over three weeks, Bangladesh won their first ODI and T20I win over New Zealand in New Zealand - all under Shanto's captaincy. 

His captaincy and understanding of the game has earned him praises from different quarters and former South Africa cricketer and now commentator HD Ackerman believes Bangladesh will be in "safe hands" when Shanto is given full-time captaincy.