Sports Desk:

Bangladesh cricket team captain Najmul Hossain Shanto has said his side is better than the way it conceded a seven-wicket defeat against India in the first T20 international match in Gwalior on Sunday but does not know how to consistently score 180 or more runs in the shortest format of the game.

“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,” Shanto told a post-match media conference.

He said he would not single out 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 in Bangladesh saying the team is so used to chasing down 140-150-run conditions but do not know how to score 180 runs in good batting conditions.

Bangladesh in fact, have breached the 180-run barrier only four times in the last couple of years, out of 45 matches played. The scores have come twice against Ireland and twice against Sri Lanka. Bangladesh lost both the matches against Sri Lanka, once in 2022 and once in 2024.

According to Shanto, “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.”