Bangladesh women’s team coach Janak Gamage on Thursday blamed the senior players of the team and lamented that their irresponsible batting caused the downfall of the team during their short visit to Pakistan. Gamage expressed his feelings to reporters after they returned from Pakistan where they lost all their games – two one-day Internationals and two Twenty20s.
‘Poor batting was the reason behind this lackluster performance,’ said the Sri Lankan. ‘Senior batters could not bat with responsibility. They batted irresponsibly and that caused our downfall,’ he added.
Bangladesh could not pass three-figure mark in either of the Twenty20 match and were unable to post a 200-plus score in either of the ODI.
They scored just 123 runs in their last ODI, as most of their batters including, skipper Salma Khatun and some other senior players like Lata Mandal, Fargana Haque failed with the bat throughout the series.
On Wednesday, Salma also admitted the fact and held herself and other senior batters responsible for the failures.
Gamage also echoed the skipper.
‘Salma is the number one all-rounder in Twenty20. She has been playing for a long time. She is a good cricketer.
‘A player like her should have batted with lot more responsibilities. None of the top-order batters could stay in the wicket.
‘During the last ODI, everyone got out with poor shots. I am deeply disappointed with the batting. ‘
The former Sri Lankan cricketer could not find the reasons for the failure as he believed that the preparation was adequate.
‘We had good preparations. We made preparations here, played practice matches.
‘We worked discretely with batting but the batting was not good unit wise.’
However, the 51-year old thought that his charges have much better ability and he thought they will bounce back.
‘This is not our true ability. These girls can bat much better.
‘I know the ability of the girls, they can do much better. But apart from one or two others could not bat with responsibility.’
Amid the frustration Gamage saw some bright points and he highly praised the new players including 15-year old Nahida Akter.
‘Nahida is only 16 [15]. She did well with her opportunity. She picked up seven wickets from four matches. If she can do well, why can’t the seniors?’ exclaimed the coach.
Gamage, who joined the team as a coach in April 2014 eyes on to improve the team’s ranking but at the moment his focus is on qualifying round for the World Twenty20 tournament that will commence in Thailand on November 28.
‘I said with responsibility that my target is to ascend in the ICC ranking,’ he said.
‘Target of the near future is to qualify for the Twenty20 World Cup.
For the upcoming tournament, the gangling Sri Lankan urged the board to arrange some practice game.
‘South Africa team may come in the end of this month. If they don’t come we shall not have any match before the qualifying.
‘I shall request the board to arrange some games. If that is not possible we must reach Thailand little early.’
-With New Age input
