Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has revealed that his boys were motivated to win the five-match T20 International series against Australia because the two teams rarely played on a regular basis, and that his side had never won a series against the visitors.
“There is always a motivation when you play the bigger teams — normally those which don’t visit our country that often,” Shakib said.
“Also, we had a really good series in Zimbabwe and so everyone was pretty motivated to do well in this series as well. We had never won a series against Australia, and so this was our chance. Hence, we wanted to deliver well as a unit, which is what happened,” Shakib said.
Following his four-wicket haul, Shakib became the second bowler to take 100 T20Is wickets, joining Lasith Malinga on the list. He now has 102 wickets, only five short of the Sri Lankan pace bowler at an average of 20.83 and an economy of just 6.80.
“Any such achievement obviously feels good. This kind of personal achievement inspires you to do well for your side… I am really happy, and I feel I will be able to contribute for many more days and would be striving for that.”
On the low scores in the series, Shakib said, “We could have perhaps scored 10 or 15 more runs in every match, since we were in situations where doing it was possible. But the wickets were so difficult [to bat on] that it was always tough for a new batsman [to play]. So it would be unfair to judge someone on the basis of just one series because the conditions were really tough for the batsmen.”