Bangladesh captain Najmul Shanto was not happy with his team’s performance in the 1st T20I match against India. Bangladesh were hammered by 7 wickets in the first fixture of the 3-match series. The Bangladesh side failed to turn up with the bat and were only able to score 127 runs, which India chased down in just 11.5 overs. Shanto slammed the side after the match, stating that they did not know how to score 180 runs.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, captain Najmul Shanto blasted the side’s batting order and said that Bangladesh were much better than what they turned up in Gwalior.
Shanto himself scored 27 runs before getting out to Washington Sundar in the 12th over of the game. On Sunday, October 6, the majority of the Bangladesh batters seemed out of depth against the Indian bowling attack, which had two debutants in the playing XI.
“I wouldn’t say we played badly. We are a better team than this. We haven’t done well in this format for a long time, but I don’t believe we are such a bad team,” said Najmul Shanto.
“I don’t want to talk about any individual player. I think the batting unit didn’t do well today. There will be aggression in the way we approach our scoring, but sometimes we have to select the balls correctly. We will think about it, but we can’t rush in changing our approach,” Shanto said.
The Bangladesh captain blamed the conditions back at home stating that the team is so used to playing in 140-150-run conditions that they do not know how to score 180 runs in good batting conditions.
Bangladesh in fact, have breached the 180-run barrier only 4 times in the last 2 years, out of 45 matches played. The scores have come twice against Ireland and twice against Sri Lanka. Out of the 4 times that the have scored 180+, three have come in home conditions.
However, Bangladesh – out of those four matches, lost both games against Sri Lanka, once in 2022 and once in 2024.
“We have the ability, but we have room for improvement in our skills. We have been batting in this way for the last ten years. Sometimes we do well. We have to make some changes, perhaps where we practice back home. We play on 140-150 wickets at home. Our batters don’t know how to score 180 runs. I won’t blame just the wickets, but we have to consider skills and mentality,” Najmul Shanto was critical of the team after the match.
