Pakistan vs Bangladesh 2020: Mahmudullah blames batsmen for series loss
Bangladesh were outplayed in the three-match T20I series against Pakistan, as the visitors lost 2-0 with the final game washed out due to rain. T20 skipper Mahmudullah was critical of his batsmen and felt that the batting line-up as a whole let the team down, with the all-rounder stating that the batsmen did not give the bowlers enough runs to defend in either of the games.
"As a batting unit, we didn't do so well. The wickets were not so batting-friendly but still, we have the capability of making better runs. Bowlers did well, they bowled well in the first match but we really need to improve our batting," Mahmudullah was quoted as saying after the game by Cricbuzz.
"They (Pakistan) are the number-one team and we are number nine. But as captain, I wanted our team to put in better performance," he further added.
Bangladesh were able to put up scores of 141-5 and 136-6 in the first and second T20Is respectively, which were not good enough scores to defend against Pakistan's experienced batting line-up.
Except for Tamim Iqbal, no Bangladesh batsman was able to make an impact. Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf were successful in restricting the run-flow by picking up wickets at key moments.
"Pakistan has a huge factory of producing fast bowlers. They have a bunch of good fast bowlers. Haris Rauf has been very good with his new ball and old ball skills. Shaheen Afridi is doing very well. I think they always have a very good pace bowling attack," Mahmudullah asserted.
"But as I mentioned, the wicket was not too easy to bat on. In the first game, we understood the wicket a bit later and we should have approached in a different way. But that's not an excuse, next time I think we need to keep this in mind and come up with better ideas and execute," he concluded.