The three-match ODI series against New Zealand in Mirpur served as Bangladesh’s final opportunity to assess several cricketers and build team cohesion ahead of the ICC ODI World Cup in India next month.

To address areas of concern before the World Cup, Bangladesh’s team management decided to rest six regular starters, including captain Shakib Al Hasan, for the series. In contrast, two experienced campaigners, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad, made their return to the national team.

While an ideal scenario would have involved playing a series on a true sporting surface just before the World Cup, as expected in the mega event, it appeared that the team management had a different strategy in mind.

In the series opener, Bangladesh seemed to be in a strong position before the game was ultimately washed out. The decision to take the field with only three specialist bowlers paid off as New Zealand struggled on 136 for five in 33.4 overs on the typically slow and low Mirpur pitch. Mustafizur Rahman and Nasum Ahmed were particularly effective, with Mustafizur taking three wickets, and Nasum causing difficulties for the Kiwi batters with turn and bounce, taking two wickets quickly.

Despite the hosts’ dominance in unfamiliar pitch conditions, questions arose about whether the team management was primarily focused on achieving results to gain a false sense of confidence, a strategy that had backfired during the T20 World Cup in 2021.

Bangladesh’s stand-in skipper, Liton Das, mentioned that rain had prevented them from practicing ahead of the series. Consequently, the last-minute preparation for Bangladesh’s batters ahead of the World Cup needed to come from this series. However, the pitch’s behavior during the rain-interrupted game did not seem significantly different from what was on offer two years ago, making it challenging for the batters.