Bangladesh started the year with a T20 series loss at home to Sri Lanka but ended it on a high by whitewashing the West Indies in their own backyard in a T20 series.
At the year’s end, the stats show Bangladesh played 43 matches, winning 18 and losing 25. Individually, several players shone, amassing runs and wickets. Mehidy Hasan Miraz had a stellar year with both bat and ball, topping the charts in Tests. In T20s, Rishad set a new record.
Taskin Ahmed claimed a quarter of his career wickets this year alone. Towhid Hridoy and Zakir Hasan consistently impressed with the bat. Determining Bangladesh’s standout performer in 2024 is challenging, but the numbers tell an intriguing story.
Miraz Tops Tests in Runs and Wickets
At the start of the year, Mehidy Hasan Miraz wasn’t even in the top ten of the Test all-rounder rankings. By the end, he climbed to the second spot globally, with his standout performance being the whitewash of Pakistan in Pakistan. Scoring two 70-plus innings and taking 10 wickets in the two-match series earned him the Player of the Series title.
In October, Miraz narrowly missed his second Test century, falling three runs short in Mirpur. Nevertheless, he finished as Bangladesh’s top Test player with 614 runs and 31 wickets.
In bowling, Miraz had a close competition with Hasan Mahmud, who took 30 wickets to set a record for Bangladesh pacers in a calendar year but ended as the second-highest wicket-taker. Mominul Haque followed Miraz in runs, scoring one of Bangladesh’s three Test centuries this year.
Mahmudullah Shines in ODIs, Taskin Dominates with the Ball
Bangladesh played only nine ODIs in 2024, with Mahmudullah scoring the most runs. Of his 337 runs, 294 came in the final four matches, including a 98 against Afghanistan and three unbeaten fifties in the West Indies series, though Bangladesh lost all four games.
Taskin Ahmed led the bowling attack with 14 wickets in seven matches, followed by Mustafizur Rahman, who claimed 10 wickets in just four games.
T20: Rishad’s Record Year, Hridoy Shines with the Bat
Towhid Hridoy missed the final T20 series of the year against the West Indies due to injury, but he had already secured his place as Bangladesh’s top T20 batter with 493 runs in 20 matches. He also smashed 21 sixes, sharing the record for most sixes in the year with Zakir Hasan.
Bangladesh played 24 T20s in 2024, and Rishad Hossain featured in all of them, taking a record 35 wickets. This marked the highest number of wickets by any Bangladeshi bowler in a single calendar year in T20s. Taskin also claimed 30 wickets in the format, joining an elite group of bowlers.
Overall: Miraz and Taskin Lead the Way
Across all formats, Mehidy Hasan Miraz was the only Bangladeshi batter to score over 1,000 runs in 2024, achieving seven fifties in 30 innings. However, missing a century remains his only regret.
On the bowling front, Taskin Ahmed was exceptional, taking 63 wickets this year, the second-highest in Bangladesh’s history for a calendar year. Only Shakib Al Hasan, with 77 wickets in 2010, has taken more in a single year.
In a year filled with remarkable individual performances, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taskin Ahmed stood out as the brightest stars of Bangladesh cricket.
