Shoriful rues poor team results in personal best year

Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam is more than content with his performances in all three formats for the Tigers in 2023 but was disappointed with the team's overall results in the past 12 months.

"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," Shoriful told the media today after returning to Dhaka with the team after the New Zealand tour.

A year where the Tigers lost three home ODI series and finished eighth in the ICC World Cup in India, ended on a somewhat positive note as they completed their maiden ODI and T20 win over the Kiwis in New Zealand in December.

Shoriful played a crucial role in those victories, by picking three wickets each in the ODI and the T20 victory, both of which came in Napier.

The left-arm pacer finished as the highest wicket-taker in the ODI and the T20 series and was also named the player-of-the-series in the T20s, his first such award in international cricket.

Still, Bangladesh lost the ODI series 2-1 and drew the T20 series 1-1, with the second match getting washed out.

Shoriful strongly feels that had rain not interrupted the second T20, where Bangladesh had reduced New Zealand to 72-2 after 11 overs in Mount Maunganui on Friday before the umpires called for the covers, the Tigers would've won that game and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

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