Mehidy wants his side to bat out full 50 overs after poor batting displays against Afghanistan sees them bowled out for 93 and 109.
Mehidy: We have to target playing 50 overs.
Bangladesh skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraz said that batting out 50 overs is now Bangladesh’s top objective due to their poor ODI scenario. They lost to Afghanistan by 200 runs after being knocked out for 93 runs in 27.1 overs. It comes after their last game on the UAE tour, where they were all out at 109 in 28.3 overs.
There was a similar pattern throughout both innings. Rashid Khan swept through the middle order after Saif Hassan struck some huge ones, but Bangladesh’s top order was unable to get off to a strong start. The 21-year-old seamer Bilal Sami also contributed to the wicket-taking on Tuesday, ending with his first-ever five-wicket haul.
With Bangladesh’s next ODI series, against West Indies, starting this weekend, captain Mehidy has little time to fix things. “We have to target playing 50 overs” he said at the post-match press conference, “As we failed to do so in the last two matches. I think we have to accept that we have played poor cricket as a batting unit.
“A team suffers when the batters don’t take responsibility. Every batter has to take responsibility. We will keep struggling otherwise. We can’t win a game without runs on the board, regardless of conditions.”
“The team is definitely feeling down after losing this series. We are hopeful that if we can spend time with our family in those two days that we have at home, we can play with a fresh mind.
“As a captain, I want the batters to be mentally strong. I don’t expect an overnight improvement. The coaching staff is boosting the team mentally. I should be doing it too, as a captain.”