ICC World Cup 2019: Has the time come to look beyond skipper Mashrafe Mortaza?

BIRMINGHAM: Over an epic career, he's been a part of their biggest cricketing wins. Since the time he impressed Andy Roberts - who was their bowling coach - as an under-19 player before he made his Test debut in 2001, Mashrafe Mortaza is one of the most successful pacers to have emerged from Bangladesh.
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He runs a huge NGO which helps poor people, is a Member of Parliament (MP) now, and there could be a day when he may even become the Prime Minister of his country, just like the legendary Imran Khan in Pakistan. "He is the most popular sportsperson in our country, not Shakib (Al Hasan)," a journalist tells you.
However, that still doesn't deviate from facts. If Bangladesh do carry out an honest assessment of their performance in this World Cup - after they crashed out of this edition with a 28-run defeat against India at Edgbaston - they will find that the problem in this team starts from the top itself.
On Tuesday, on a reasonably helpful wicket for the seamers, Mashrafe bowled the first over, but immediately took himself off. That certainly wasn't a case of a captain leading from the front!
Mashrafe bowled just five overs in the game, in which he conceded 36 runs. Overall, in the 2019 World Cup, he went for 315 runs in his 49 overs in seven games, while managing to pick up just one wicket. The 35-year-old has done incredibly well to survive seven knee operations to still be playing cricket, but does he add value to the team apart from bringing in his wealth of experience?
In English conditions, Bangladesh would have been better off having a quicker bowler who could also swing the ball, but Mortaza, who doesn't bowl beyond the 120s, allowed the opposition openers to run away to quick starts in no time.
After Bangladesh's exit from the World Cup, their coach, former England player Steve Rhodes was quizzed on whether including Mortaza robs the team of the chance to include at least one impact bowler in the side, preferably a youngster.
Naturally, the guarded coach directed the million-dollar question towards the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). "That really is a question for the board and Mash (Mahsrafe) to answer. I don't really want to get involved in that, if that's okay," he said.
Worryingly for Bangladesh, Rhodes also pointed out that the cricket-mad country still doesn't have a replacement for Mashrafe. "We've also got to have a bowler good enough, capable enough to actually replace Mash. Everybody forgets that," he said.