Harare: Bangladesh team director Khalid Mahmood has termed the team’s 2-1 loss to Zimbabwe in the recently concluded three-match T20I series as an “disgrace”. He said that the players played as if they were trying to cement their place in the team.
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Mahmood’s words come after Zimbabwe won their maiden T20I series against Bangladesh, winning a series-deciding 10-run victory in Harare on Tuesday. Bangladesh lost the first match of the series by 17 runs and won the second game by seven wickets. But failed to win the series in the decider.
“I am very disappointed, I did not expect to lose to Zimbabwe. We are a better team than them. I would call it an insult. I will not give any excuse. We should have won the T20 series. Losing was quite unusual.”
“When we needed 10 or 12 runs in an over, we were getting six or seven runs in every over. Nobody even tried to hit a six. Everyone was playing one for two. What was that? He batted like trying to defend his place, scored enough runs so that he didn’t lose his place,” Mahmood was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
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T20Is have been a format where Bangladesh have been far from their best self. Since last year’s T20 World Cups in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh have won only two of their last 11 T20I matches. Mahmood also expressed displeasure over the fact that none of the Bangladesh batsmen were trying to be aggressive. For Zimbabwe, Rial Burl and Luke Jongwe tried to hit boundaries despite Zimbabwe losing their first six wickets.
“When you are chasing 157, you cannot win a game by batting at 90 or 110 strike-rate. Somebody had to go after the bowling. Look at their (Burle and Jongwe) strike rate. He changed the color of the game. You can’t expect Liton Das to score every day. Afif or Shanto, I haven’t seen anyone batting aggressively. If you can’t pull the short ball for a six, it will be a problem.”
Mahmood signed off saying that the T20I squad consists of the best players in the country’s format, and admitted to not having much competition for places in T20Is in the first place.
“All of them have done well in domestic cricket, including Munim Shahriar and Parvez (Husain Emon). If your best players don’t do well, you can’t do anything. Cricketers can tell you what they have to do. They have been getting opportunities for a long time. There isn’t much competition for places, so they should be played with an open heart. I haven’t seen him play like this.”
Bangladesh next face Zimbabwe in a three-match ODI series in Harare on August 5, 7 and 10 respectively.
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