He has been dreaming of this since he was a teenager. BCB found leadership qualities in Mehdi Hasan Miraj long ago. That is the reason to make him the captain of the team in age group cricket. In 2016, Bangladesh played Youth World Cup under his leadership. Mirage, who was looking for a future leader, got the chance to lead the Bangladesh team in the 176th international after spending 8 years of his career.
Miraj has said many times that he has dreamed of leading the Bangladesh team since childhood. Maybe the acting captain, but the dream of captaining the national team has been fulfilled to some extent. That too in a match, in which Bangladesh is going to play with the aim of winning the series. In the unwritten final, the baton of leadership came to him in Daivachakra. As the regular captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto suddenly got injured, the burden of captaining the team fell on his shoulders. BCB has started thinking of Miraj as the captain as an alternative to Shant for a few days now. A rehearsal of that is happening today in Sharjah.
A beaming smile glimmered through his sunglasses as he stepped out to toss with opposition captain Hasmatullah Shahidi in the sweltering Sharjah sun today. Miraj won by luck. He won the toss and took the batting. And the same picture as usual in batting – Bangladesh is in danger of sudden collapse. 53 runs for 1 wicket suddenly became 72 for 4 wickets. Mirage has good experience of fighting against the current. Even today, in the first hour of leadership, he took the lead of the team in a difficult situation.
Miraj stepped up with a cool, over-defensive batting to provide worthy support to the experienced Mahmudullah to overcome the disaster. He took 106 balls to make his fifty. Only Junaid Siddiqui has such slow fifties among Bangladesh batsmen in ODIs. In 2010, Junaid also scored a fifty off 106 balls in Chittagong. Mirage wanted to go for a slog over without losing any more wickets in the middle of the innings to make a score of 250. Mahmudullah-Miraj's fifth wicket stand of 145 runs was the highlight of Bangladesh's innings. A well-timed 66 next to the name when returning to bowl Omarzai in 45.6 overs.
Whatever the outcome of the match, captain Miraj has at least given a message in the first match that he has the ability to lead the national team from the front. Another test of his captaincy will be in the West Indies. Regular Test captain Shanto is out of the Test series against the Caribbean with a groin injury. Test captain Mirage's journey may begin in Antigua. Tested in leadership in age group cricket and domestic cricket, this is a great opportunity for Mirage to prove himself in leadership in international cricket.
