Fresh guard for a rivalry in pause

Batters celebrating after reaching a milestone, be it a half-century, century or further increments of fifty, is commonplace in cricket, almost everyone does it.

Some jump up and down in elation, others calmly wave the bat to acknowledge their teammates and fans, a few fall to the ground to thank the Almighty and a handful stare into the heavens in gratitude.

There are, however, some players who follow up the celebration by taking fresh guard as a mental exercise to calm their nerves and to start their innings anew.

In a symbolic way, Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan will get to do that with his ODI career, as he is set to play his 101th ODI in the same venue and against the same opponents he had started his journey in the format nearly 11 years ago.

Rizwan had made his ODI debut for Pakistan in April 17, 2015, in the first game of a three-match ODI series against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.

That series is fondly remembered in the annals of Bangladesh cricket as the Tigers won it 3-0 and it kicked off the trifecta of home series wins which included triumphs over India and South Africa.

Surprisingly, Bangladesh and Pakistan have not had a 50-overs bilateral series since then, facing off only four times in the last 11 years in the format only in multi-team events.

During the same period, Pakistan have had nine ODI encounters against India – even with no bilateral cricketing relations between them -- more than double of the matches against Bangladesh.

It’s not as if Bangladesh and Pakistan have not had bilateral relations at all. During this period, Bangladesh have toured Pakistan four times and Pakistan have toured Bangladesh twice, but only for Tests and T20Is -- which could either be pure co-incidence or a sign of the declining relevance of the ODI format.

In the 2015 series, Bangladesh were a side on the up, riding the high of their maiden quarterfinal finish in a World Cup earlier that year, with the ‘Fab Five’ at their peaks while Pakistan were a side in rebuild.

The games were one-sided, with Tamim Iqbal making the series his own with two centuries and a fifty.

As fate would have it, Pakistan are seemingly are in the midst of what appears to be another reset, with six uncapped players getting picked in the 15-member squad and the experienced Babar Azam axed.

However, Bangladesh are no longer the well-oiled machine they once were in the 50-over format. The Mehidy Hasan Miraz-led side have lost their identity as an ODI side and are trying to regain their form in time with a direct entry into next year’s ODI World Cup still on the line.

Rizwan, an experienced campaigner now, landed in Dhaka in the early hours of Sunday alongside the other Pakistan cricketers. 

Most likely, he will take guard for his 101st ODI somewhere along the series and hopefully, he won’t have to wait till his 201st ODI to play another 50-over Bangladesh-Pakistan ODI series.