“As long as you are playing for the team, everything will be in order,” says Bangladesh team director

Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud has condemned his batters for their methodology during the seven-wicket loss to Afghanistan while Mahmud said that the BCB was doing everything possible to ensure the best preparation facilities for the batters.

Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud has condemned his batters for their methodology during the seven-wicket loss to Afghanistan. Having decided to bat first, Bangladesh had attempted to 127 for 7, with their innings highlighting simply the one six.

“Mosaddek [Hossain] hit the only six of the [innings] although it was a lucky one as the fielder caught it and touched the rope. But I would never blame him for that shot,”

Mahmud said.

“He had the intent to hit a straight six. I want to see the others at least trying. That’s all I want to see.

“I don’t want to see them getting out after defending 15-20 balls. It is very hurtful. You can have 50 for 3 or 50 for 4 or 40 for no loss in the powerplay, but you can’t take pressure from both sides.”

“As long as you are playing for the team, everything will be in order,”

he said.

“If you fear losing your place, you won’t be performing at the international level. You can be selfish in a Test match, nobody will say anything if you score a 300-ball century.

“But you can’t do that in this format. You have to play fearless cricket. It means you can’t be afraid of losing your spot on the team. You have to show the intent. If you don’t, you have no right to stay in the team.”

Mahmud said that the BCB was doing everything possible to ensure the best preparation facilities for the batters, remembering flying for three legspinners including Rishad Hossain, who has played for Bangladesh A, and one from Chennai to help them with reproducing the experience of facing Rashid Khan.

“It is difficult to find out if there was fear within our batters about [Afghanistan’s] spinners,”

Mahmud said.

“We brought on a couple of legspinners, one of whom played in the IPL. We also had Rishad [Hossain] in the nets. We tried to help the team as much as possible on behalf of the BCB. But there’s a difference between training and matches.

“It looks like we are unable to handle the pressure that comes in a match. The players have to find out ways to get out of this situation. To play well in T20s, we can’t bat this way. Even against an ordinary bowling side, forget about Rashid and [Mohammad] Nabi. They have good technique but we have to improve the tactical part of our batting.”

Aside from his players, Mahmud also tracked down one more objective to swipe at in Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka. After Sri Lanka had lost the opening game of the competition to Afghanistan, Shanaka had contrasted Bangladesh’s bowlers negatively with those of Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan has a world-class bowling attack,”

Shanaka had said.

“We know Fizz [Mustafizur Rahman] is a good bowler. Shakib [al Hasan] is a world-class bowler. But apart from them, there is no world-class bowler on the side. So if we compare with Afghanistan, Bangladesh is an easier opponent.”

“I don’t know why Dasun made that comment,”

he said.

“Definitely, Afghanistan has a better squad. He said we have only two bowlers in our line-up, but I don’t see any bowlers in Sri Lanka. At least Bangladesh has world-class bowlers like Mustafiz and Shakib. They don’t even have that. It is not about the words. It is about how you play the game.”

“Sri Lanka is also under pressure, not just us,”

Mahmud said.

“I am hoping we will have a better time in Dubai’s conditions. It will be a tense match tomorrow. The team that handles the pressure better will have more chance of winning. Whoever wins the mental battle, will win the game. Skill, tactics, and technique will take a backseat tomorrow.”