Bangladesh team is placed in Group A of Champions Trophy 2025 [Source: @ICC/x]
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) recently announced a strong 15-player squad for the Bangladesh cricket team as they aim to clinch their first-ever senior men’s ICC title through the upcoming 2025 ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan and in the UAE. Ahead of the much-awaited tournament, here we take a look at three possible Bangladeshi players who might prove to be their X-factors.
3. Najmul Hossain Shanto
Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto averages a healthy 37.29 while batting at number three in ODIs. Moreover, he averages a staggering 59.66 while batting at number four for his country in the format. A formidable top-order as well as a middle-order batter, Shanto is not only capable of anchoring an innings during the middle overs, but the 26-year-old can also enforce late acceleration.
Interestingly, in the lone ODI match he has played so far in Pakistan, the cricketer plundered one of the three ODI centuries of his career, doing so by whacking 104 against Afghanistan in a match-winning cause at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium.
Shanto’s ODI strike rate of nearly 80 will also place him and his team in good stead on the high-scoring Pakistani surfaces in the upcoming 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
2. Taskin Ahmed
Taskin Ahmed is one of only four Bangladeshi fast bowlers in history to have collected 100 or more wickets in ODIs. All set to spearhead Bangladesh’s pace attack alongside fellow senior pro Mustafizur Rahman, his abilities of taking crucial wickets early in the innings can seize early momentum for his country in some high-octane Champions Trophy matches this month.
Apart from holding a prolific white-ball record, Taskin Ahmed will also head into the tournament on the trail of some exceptional outings, albeit for Durbar Rajshahi in BPL 2024-25. The speedster finished the opening round of the competition as its highest wicket-taker, picking up 25 wickets in just 12 T20 innings.
With 109 wickets in just 77 ODIs overall at an average of 30.01 in the format, Ahmed holds an even better bowling average of 15.20 on Pakistani surfaces.
1. Mehidy Hasan Miraz
Among all Bangladeshi players travelling to the UAE and Pakistan for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, only one player has more ODI wickets to his name than seasoned all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Serving as Najmul Hossain Shanto’s deputy, Mehidy Hasan has picked up 110 wickets in the format from just 100 innings while holding a stupendous economy rate of 4.84.
Even when he is not taking wickets, Hasan has the tendency of restricting the opposition’s run-flow in the middle overs.
With the bat, he is an ideal middle-order exponent in the line-up who can occasionally bat at the top of the order if asked to do so. Moreover, Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s average as an opener amounts to 57.33, which is significantly higher than his career average of 25.38. While he has played just two ODIs in Pakistan, Mehidy Hasan still found time to smear his career-best score of 112* in the country, thus showcasing his ability of adapting to the different playing surfaces.