Tigers return home with bitter experience
BCB director not ready to accept the way Bangladesh lost
Sports Reporter, Dhaka
Bangladesh cricket team returned home from Sri Lanka empty-handed following a biting experience in the three-match ODI series. Due to technical glitches, the scheduled flight of the team had been delayed and landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital at 1:45pm after a delay of around two hours.
In the aftermath of the recently-concluded ICC Cricket World Cup in the United Kingdom (UK), this series in Sri Lanka was the worst most tour of the Bangladesh team. They were whitewashed by the islander nation in the three-match series.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced that the Tigers led by regular captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza will go to Sri Lanka. But Mashrafe yet again received his hamstring injury and ruled out of the tour just a few hours before their departure for Colombo along with pace all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin.
Tamim Iqbal was given the charge of the new-look Tigers, who earlier missed the service of red-hot in-form Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Kumar Das. The duo withdrew them from the short series in Sri Lanka citing personal reasons.
Bangladesh were ahead of their Asian rival, Sri Lanka, in terms of the recent performance and ICC rankings prior to this short series. But they narrowed down the gap of the rating points with Bangladesh.
However, the way Bangladesh played and lost to Sri Lanka was not expected from them because that was not their real character of the team, says Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) director and its media and publication committee chairman Jalal Younus.
Citing the shocking loss between England and Australia, Jalal said that they whitewash at their respective home den while they tour each other. But he said that what they all saw throughout the series that was not their real character there being always some lacking what they have to sort out as early as possible.
Its not our real character, said Jalal Younus.
Definitely, we play better than that. Its cricket, where a series may be bad but another series will be good. We all see the same thing has been happening in Australia and England. When they (A) go to England, they were whitewashed by England. Again when England go to Australia, they were whitewashed by them (A), Jalal Younus told media at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
I am not worried about it. But there are lacking in some areas. Weve to address these lackings very seriously, he added.
In the aftermath of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England, from where Bangladesh existed from the round-robin league stage with three wins and a tie from their allotted nine-match road string at group phase. So, its important series for them to fare well against Sri Lanka whom were thrashed by Tigers with whopping margin in the last Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
BCB director said that they did not see the team playing as a team-game against Sri Lanka in the just-concluded three-match ODI series.
Fielding is very important, where we have seen a significant lacking. Even we have also seen that they didnt play as a team. We have to find out why they did not play as a unit, he said.
There were fatigue-ness among the players that I accepted. But as a cricketer, you have to accept it. You have to play in this way, he viewed.
Its not a full series. It was just a series of three matches, he concluded.
Bangladesh lost the tour-ending match by 122 runs following their defeat in back-to-back matches by seven wickets and 91 runs respectively.
