Top-order batting failure made Bangladesh ‘A’ team pay heavily in their India tour, said skipper Mominul Haque, as the players returned home on Wednesday.
The second string Bangladeshi side won just one of their three one-day matches before losing both of their three-day matches, respectively against Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka and India ‘A’.
They earned their only win in the tour thanks to a brilliant all-round performance of Nasir Hossain, who scored an unbeaten century and grabbed five wickets in the same match.
Anamul Haque scored 35 runs in three one-dayers before getting a pair in the only first-class match of the tour. Somuya Sarkar did nothing better, making 34 in three one-dayers and scoring a duck and 19 in the three-day match.
Rony Talukdar could accumulate just 22 runs in the three one-day matches while Mominul also had an unenviable tour with a total of 59 runs in one-day matches.
He had to wait for his only half-century of the tour until the final innings of the three-day match that Bangladesh lost by an innings and 32 runs to their Indian counterparts.
‘Our top-order could not perform,’ Mominul made an honest confession upon team’s arrival at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. ‘You cannot win a match by the contribution of the lower order.
‘If the start is good it gives the lower order some inspiration but that was not the case for us,’ he said.
Chief selector Faruk Ahmed, who went with the team as manager, echoed the same words.
‘You cannot survive if your top-order fails because you are on the back foot from the beginning. From there it is always difficult to make a comeback.’
Faruk emphasised on playing more longer version games in order to do well in this format.
‘We need to play longer version games more because you need to overcome your shortcomings through playing more and more matches and there is no alternative to it.’
-With New Age input
