Seasoned all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan termed Bangladesh’s series loss to relatively lesser-known USA team as a “wake-up call” in the lead-up to the ICC men’s T20 World Cup, starting June 1 in the West Indies and the USA.
Bangladesh’s preparation for the marquee event suffered a massive setback when they went down 0-2 in the three-match T20I rubber, with a game still to be played. Bangladesh will now desperately look to avoid a whitewash.
“Certainly it is disappointing and we didn’t expect it but we must give credit to the US team for the way they have played. I think no one expected that we will lose two games. Any match you lose as a team is disappointing and you don’t want to lose a game and obviously it is very disappointing. But having said that we have to play the World Cup and this series might be a wake-up call for us as we haven’t played the way we want to play,” Shakib said while analysing the loss.
The 37-year-old cautioned his side that there are no small or big teams in the shortest format of the sport, and the United States of America’s team has proved that in the first couple of games.
“It’s a team game and everyone has to take the responsibility – you win as a team and you lose as a team. I don’t want to blame any particular person or any particular department. It’s just that T20 is such a format you have to play very good cricket in all three departments to win against any team. There are no small or big teams in T20 cricket and that’s why it is more exciting than any other format. And the proof of that is in the last two games the way US played,” Shakib commented.
Irrespective of the humiliating losses, Shakib insisted that they did not take the opposition lightly. “I don’t think we took them lightly. In the first game maybe we couldn’t do what we wanted to do and in the second game exactly the same thing happened – we couldn’t execute the plans that we were supposed to do on the ground,” he said.
“In T20 every team is very much equal. I have seen the game between West Indies A and Nepal and they really played well and you are seeing games between Ireland and Netherlands and they are playing very close matches. Pakistan lost to Ireland and in the T20 it is anybody’s game.”
“It is on the day who performs better, and so you cannot take anything lightly in T20 cricket because one or two overs can change the momentum of the game and completely change the scenario of the game. That’s why you are always up for the challenges and you cannot take anything lightly or anything for granted,” the former captain added.
Bangladesh will open their campaign in the T20 World Cup against Sri Lanka on June 8, before taking on South Africa on June 10. They will wrap up their league stage with matches against the Netherlands (June 13) and Nepal (June 17).