News – 12 Oct 2025
Bangladesh slid to an 81-run defeat in the second ODI in Chattogram, surrendering the series to Afghanistan after being bundled out for 109. The damage, once again, was done by Rashid Khan. The leg-spinner’s 5 for 17 – his sixth five-for in one-day internationals – ripped through a nervous middle order that never really looked at ease against him.
Afghanistan’s own 190 never felt imposing, yet it proved more than enough. Rashid started quietly and then, with the score on 68 for 3, cleaned up Towhid Hridoy. Four more wickets followed in quick time, Bangladesh losing their last seven for only 24 runs.
“It’s not that he’s turning it square,” Bangladesh spin-bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed observed afterwards, trying to pinpoint the main issue. “I think they are playing Rashid, not the ball.”
Mushtaq, who collected plenty of wickets himself as a Pakistan leg-spinner, felt the batters became entranced by the bowler’s reputation rather than the actual deliveries. “He is not a big spinner of the ball. But he is very experienced. He is a wicket-taker. His line and length is very consistent. I think we have to sometimes play the ball, not the bowler. We have to improve quickly.”
That theme – separating the bowler’s aura from the immediate task – ran through every answer. Bangladesh’s middle-order numbers back him up. Through the two matches they have managed only 18.70 per wicket in overs 11-40, while Afghanistan have ticked along at 29.37. Neither side has struck at four an over during that period, yet Rashid, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Noor Ahmad have kept the Tigers pinned down, and eventually they crack.
Mushtaq also pointed to a sliding trend. Bangladesh’s average in the middle overs this year is 21.86, well below the 35-plus they achieved in both 2023 and 2024. Only in 2007 have they fared worse over an entire calendar year. “I think the ground reality is we have to sort out our batting,” he said. “They are good players, they can bat. But obviously against spinners like Rashid and all, [who are] very mature and experienced cricketers in those conditions, we have to be very proactive to playing those kind of spinners very quickly.”
The conversation naturally steered towards strike rotation, the lifeblood of middle-overs batting. “You must have a better technique against spinners in middle overs, how to get singles on good balls. If you can rotate a strike, I think that will put more pressure on bowlers than yourself,” Mushtaq noted. At present, Bangladesh’s batters appear trapped between going hard or shutting up shop; singles, twos and the odd boundary off a mis-hit seem to have gone missing.
To be fair, Rashid at his best is hard to manoeuvre. His pace through the air is deceptive, his stock leg-break skids on, and the googly – released with minimal change of wrist – threatens both edges. Even so, Mushtaq argued that temperament, not technique, may be the bigger gap. “If you have great temperament you can play against any bowler in international cricket. Rashid has been very successful for many, many years for Afghanistan, but [at the] same time as a Bangladeshi batting unit, we should know how to play the ball, not the bowler.”
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi praised his star bowler in understated fashion, saying Rashid “just knows what length the surface demands”. That surface, a touch tacky after morning rain, offered enough grip to keep every spinner interested, but Bangladesh’s quick collapse was still jarring. From 85 for 3 they went 94 for 6, then 109 all out.
What next? The third ODI looms on Tuesday. Bangladesh have already wrapped up four straight T20I series wins this year, which makes their 50-over struggles harder to explain. The coaching staff will look closely at personnel and approach. Do they bring in an additional specialist batter, perhaps pushing the all-rounders down the order? Or tweak the powerplay tempo so the asking rate doesn’t climb so steeply once Rashid enters the fray?
Mushtaq did not spell out selection changes. His focus – at least publicly – stayed on mindset. “I believe that Bangladesh can challenge against any team,” he insisted, provided the middle-order puzzle is solved. For now, though, Rashid Khan has posed a question that Bangladesh have failed to answer, and the series scoreline reflects it.
