Bangladesh's success in 2018 is like magic. They defeated India and Pakistan in the league, and SL's loss to Thailand boosted them to second in the league. Then they defeated India in the final unbelievably, taking home the only cricket glory of the tiger nation. But it was as good as a fluke. They never displayed anything to match it in the game.
The actual up-and-coming team in the context of women's Asian cricket is - no not SL but - Pakistan.
Pakistan women never had cricket, In fact, it was illegal that the very first team they created in the 1990s was taken to the court and got banned. By that time only SL and India had women's cricket in Asia. They were both bad - India was just bad, SL very. But they were international cricket teams of the time. In fact, Pakistani women were granted test status by SL.
And then in the 2000s in the Asia cup, it was just two-sided. India and SL may play only within themselves, or with Pakistan or Bangladesh at times. They both would defeat the minnows Pakistan and Bangladesh easily and India would beat SL in the final. Pakistani women looked like the Malaysian women of today. Despite playing on invitation in the nineties, Pakistani women were not good enough to play in the world cup and hence were never qualified before 2009.
Two things changed after 2010. Asia cup changed the format to T20I. And Pakistan women changed the tables... like really really changed tables, in fact, they made the table into a table mountain.
SL women had a deficiency for power-hitting for the longer we knew them. They do even now, Just one or two like Eshani or Chamari may stand against this inevitable truth. So SL women were weakest in T20. In fact, SL never took part in the T20 format finals until this year. They last played in the Asia cup finals in 2008.
IDK how this change and the relative weakness of the second-best team boosted Pakistan. But Pakistani ladies started appearing in the Asia cup finals in both 2012 and 2016. At the same time, they started playing in the WC.
Looking at the team strength today, Pakistan women are a team of international capacity, a team far ahead of SL and of course Bangladesh. They are not as good as India which is in the highest tier of women's game. But they are no longer in the woods even in a WC.
I really dunno what jetted Pakistani ladies around 2010. SL should study it. SL women show some great spirit. But talents are not there to match it. They need to make the most of the remaining Chamari years to do what Pakistan did.
Meanwhile, Pakistan shows glory day by day, and perhaps will convert their success to the WC level.
