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He who can, and he who can't

Mohammad Isam
The Bangladesh-Zimbabwe series that ended this Friday will always be remembered fondly by one player and at the same time, pass off as yet another listless episode in the career of another more illustrious player.
On the eve of the crucial third one-daycr. Shakib Al Hasan received news that he has made it in the ICC Championship rankings climbing over the likes of Andrew Flintoff and Jacob Oram as the No. 1 all-rounder in one-day cricket.
He has done everything asked of not just an all-rounder but also a match-winner. He took over the lead spinner’s role after the 1CL defections and became the only spinner of note after Abdur Razzak's suspension. He kept insisting in press conferences that he rarely takes interest in his bowling but surely nothing comes about in cricket without hard work. And that confidence has exuded greatly in his batting.
He has flourished ever since he hammered a fighting half-century batting at number eight against New Zealand in Chittagong last year. He returned to his middle-order batting position and struck runs with ease. When a batsman can blast Muttiah Muralidaran through and over the covers consistently, you know he is a potent force to reckon with.
In the last six innings, Shakib has scored 223 runs with an average of55.75. There is no doubt that Shakib is going through a purple patch but how many players in the Bangladesh team have ever been able to cash in during a good time?
The man who bats just above Shakib in the batting order Mohammad .‘Vshraful has
wasted yet another series.
. It might just be three-odd innings for the captain but ask any international batsman and they can tell you better tlian Ashraful what three innings can do for a career. Just ask Tillekaratne Dilshan, the man who hung on to his Test spot, scored the runs and retained his one-day place and now scores as if he was never set aside. Three good knocks in Pakistan and he has pushed away any threat to his place in the team.
Ashraful has totalled just 12 (yes, twelve) runs in the one-day series against Zimbabwe after scoring 57 from the previous three in the tri-series. Think about it, just 69 runs from six innings on the back of a Test century. Say he wasn't in form even while scoring that century but wasn't it enough to bring him back among the runs? Well, not when you are Ashraful. It won't hurt him now, nobody is there to push him out of the team and his captaincy albeit controversial at times will keep him in place. Maybe he will begin his long golden run of form, from the home series against Pakistan but when he hangs up his boots and puts his willow aside, he will rue the days he simply drove uppishly for no reason: tried to experiment when all he needed to do was play straight and keep it simple.
It is hard to imagine anyone other than Shakib and his growing legion of fans remembering this series against Zimbabwe when one considers the volume of important and glamorous cricket coming up in 2009.
But what of Ashraful? Scanning through his records someday and stumbling upon the dreadful statistics of this series one might ask 'what does one do with lost opportunities'.