Although they ended up getting beaten quite comfortably, Bangladesh gave a good account of themselves in the one-off Test against World No 1 India. Delighted with their fighting effort, Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim felt there were plenty of gains from their first five-day game in India.
“Although we lost, there are a lot of positives playing the No 1 team in the world. It’s a privilege and honour. The way they bowled, it was hard work for our batsmen. Not only with the new ball but also with old ball, we never felt that we were set or getting big runs. Every bowler came up with a plan. Our bowlers need to learn how to bowl in partnerships, create pressure and grab chances,” said Mushfiqur.
“Mehedi (Hasan) played well, Taijul (Islam) bowled well in first innings, Mahmudullah played well in second innings, Shakib (al Hasan) bowled well in second innings and batted well in the first, Soumya Sarkar looks good. These performances gives us belief going forward that we can compete with the World No 1 team.”
Bangladesh, while showing plenty of grit, collapsed at the end owing to some ill-advised shots. Mushfiqur, himself guilty of throwing his wicket away while in a good partnership with Mahmudullah, said it was hard to salvage a draw against India considering the resources they had.
“One cannot win or force a draw just by defending the ball. It is hard to tell how someone will get out. We lost wickets at the wrong time today. The first two hours were very important for us.
“Our plan was to lose as few wickets as possible till lunch and then take the game to the tea break. But we all got out before that. If we knew Virat Kohli’s basics, we would average more than 50, and we wouldn’t have needed so many batsmen. We could have drawn the game with four batsmen. Unfortunately, our team doesn’t have a Virat Kohli.”
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