Shakib says ‘lack of confidence, poor mindset cost us dearly’

As Bangladesh’s cricket has been at its lowest ebb, captain Shakib Al Hasan said the lack of confidence and poor mindset since the World Cup cost Bangladesh dearly.

Bangladesh made a brilliant start to the World Cup before losing its way later and finished at eighth position. Later, they were whitewashed by Sri Lanka in 3-0 series before losing the one-off Test to Afghanistan.

They got back to the winning way from the perpetual defeat of all format of cricket by defeating Zimbabwe but that victory was not convincing enough as the Southern African nations gave them massive scare.

However they couldn’t keep up the winning spree as they lost their last match yesterday against Afghanistan by 25 runs.

After the Test defeat against Afghanistan, Shakib said that only Tri-nation T20 series victory could bring back their lost pride.

But the way Afghanistan has been dominating in this series against Bangladesh, it seems a distant dream now for the Tigers.

“Lack of confidence and poor mindset cost us dearly,” Shakib said after the defeat at the hands of Afghanistan.

He believes that they gifted away the game against Afghanistan yesterday as they failed to hold on to the momentum and put pressure on their opponent.

Bangladesh bowled comparatively well but the ground fielding was not electrifying enough to stall a ruthless Afghan batting line up. This onslaught was led by Mohammad Nabi’s swashbuckling 54 ball-84 not out as the Afghanistan racked up 164 for 6 from a tottering 40 for 4.

The Afghan bowlers then complemented Nabi’s effort with a disciplined bowling and astonishing fielding to wrap up Bangladesh’s innings for 139 in 19.5 overs also helped by poor batting by Tiger batsmen.

After that performance, Shakib also admitted Afghanistan are now a bigger team than them.

”Obviously, they are a bigger team than us as they are ranked seven and we are number 10. West Indies and Sri Lanka are above us, against whom we won and lose sometimes. As they are ranked seven, we actually find it difficult to win against them, which was the case in Dehradun [last year when they lost 3-0] and it was also proved yesterday. At the same time, I think we also gifted them the game as I think we were in a position from where we could have grabbed the opportunity with both hands,” he said.

Shakib also pointed to the lavish 18 extras conceded by Bangladesh in Afghanistan’s innings — as also one of the reasons for the defeat, and admitted that the Tigers had thrown away the game to their opposition after being in a position from which they could have dominated.

“We always knew that we lag behind them in terms of power but it was frustrating that we were not able to pick up wickets and they scored 106 runs in the last 10 overs. They should be given credit for the way they handled the pressure and at the same time we also made mistakes as we had the opportunities to control the game pretty well.”