Bangladesh’s pacer, Shoriful Islam, expressed satisfaction with his individual performances across all three formats for the Tigers throughout 2023. However, he couldn’t help but feel disappointment over the team’s overall results in the past 12 months.

Returning to Dhaka after the New Zealand tour, Shoriful shared his thoughts with the media, stating,

“Alhamdulillah, I had a very good year. But if we could’ve done a bit better as a team, that would’ve felt even better.”

In a year where the Tigers faced setbacks, losing three home ODI series and finishing eighth in the ICC World Cup in India, there was a somewhat positive conclusion with their maiden ODI and T20 win over the Kiwis in December. Shoriful played a pivotal role in these victories, emerging as the highest wicket-taker in both the ODI and T20 series. He was also honored with the player-of-the-series award in the T20s, marking his first such recognition in international cricket.

Despite Shoriful’s standout performances, Bangladesh faced a 2-1 loss in the ODI series and a drawn 1-1 result in the T20 series, with the second match being washed out due to rain. Shoriful strongly believes that had the rain not intervened during the second T20, where Bangladesh had a strong position with New Zealand at 72-2 after 11 overs, they would have secured a victory and taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. Reflecting on the missed opportunity, he stated,

“It was a good series. The T20 series was going our way. If it hadn’t rained, we would’ve won the second match.”