It’s a big achievement for Bangladesh to reach quarter-finals in World Cup. But if I judge the performance of the group round, only Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur were consistent. Mahmudullah is our best player at this moment because of his current performance. I hope he will shine in quarter-final too.

Besides the duo, no other batsmen played consistently. Specially the fragile performance of the openers is the matter of deep concern for us. The statement is also applicable to the bowlers. Rubel and Mashrafe performed well in one or two matches but they were not consistent.

Even, the Scottish bowler Josh Davey is in the top five bagging 15 wickets in 6 matches. Comparatively, our bowling performance was not good enough. That does not mean I am looking down upon the achievements of Bangladesh. I just want to say we have the capability to perform better. Our problem lies only in consistency.

So far New Zealand have performed the best, I think. I shall keep India in the second place. India did not face any major challenge in the group round. They performed well in all departments.

Sri Lanka and Australia have also performed well. But the Lankan bowlers failed to sparkle like their batsmen. Kumar Sangakkara can undoubtedly be termed as the best player of this World Cup.

Pakistan played well in the last part of the group round compared to the dull show at the beginning. I think they may carry out something good in the quarter-final.

Among the eight teams in the quarter-final round, West Indies performed the worst. But they managed to reach quarter-final using their experience.

Minhajul Abedin Nannu: Selector of Bangladesh Cricket Board and former captain of Bangladesh cricket team. He is the first Man of the Match of Bangladesh in World Cup.

Translated by Bijoy Chandra Shaha