In an ideal world, having five bowling options with a quota of 10 overs each should be sufficient to bowl the required 50 overs in an ODI innings.

Unfortunately, cricket, just like the real world, is far from ideal and more often than not, teams need one or two extra bowling options to get the job done.

For years, even decades, this has not been an issue for Bangladesh. Having an all-rounder of the calibre of Shakib Al Hasan, who could come into the side as a bowler and a batter, meant the Tigers practically played with 12 players in every game.

Bangladesh cricket also never had a shortage of batters who could roll their arm over when required.

From players like Alok Kapali, Aftab Ahmed and Mohammad Ashraful in the early 2000s to the likes of Mahmudullah Riyad, Naeem Islam and Nasir Hossain, more often than not, there were a few bowling options ready at hand in case any of the frontline options had a bad day.

From having a plethora of such handy part-time options, who could at least do the job in favourable conditions, the Tigers now find themselves scraping from the bottom of the barrel in search of a reliable sixth bowling option.

In the ODI series against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh had seemingly gone into the first ODI without a sixth option before captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz handed the ball to Najmul Hossain Shanto, someone who had bowled only seven times in his previous 48 ODI appearances.

Shanto, with his wonky off-spin, conceded 32 runs in four overs but claimed the wicket of Janith Liyanage, his second-ever scalp in ODIs.

After the defeat in the first match, Bangladesh management went back to the drawing board and in the next game replaced the experienced Litton Das with batting all-rounder Shamim Hossain.

Before the second one-dayer, Shamim had just played four ODIs for the Tigers, was not brought into the attack in two of those and bowled just one over each in the other two games without any success.

But Shamim rose to the occasion in Colombo, bowled a nine-over spell which cost just 22 runs and also fetched a wicket -- playing a pivotal role in the series-levelling win.

In the series-decider in Pallekele yesterday, Shamim's figures of 1-30 in four overs do not look nearly as impressive. But the 24-year-old deserves credit for his second spell as he conceded just 15 runs from the 44th and the 46th overs and also claimed the prized wicket of Kusal Mendis on 124, effectively shaving off a few runs from Sri Lanka's eventual total of 285-7.

Still, however impressive Shamim may have been in Sri Lanka with the ball, it would be imprudent of the management to call off the search for a sixth bowling option just now, as once his novelty wears off, chances are the opposition will target him for easy runs.

But the bigger problem right now is that, other than Shamim, Soumya Sarkar is the only name in the current white-ball setup who could play that batting all-rounder's role. Promising players like Mosaddek Hossain and Afif Hossain failing to live up to their potential has created this void, one that Bangladesh is trying to fill with Shamim at the moment.