Tigers’ skill and mentality under scanner

From the second Test in Kanpur to the first T20I in Gwalior, the format changed and so did most of the players. India had a new setup while Bangladesh were looking into new avenues to approach T20 cricket with more aggression. However, just as the Rohit Sharma-led side had dominated in Kanpur, the Suryakumar Yadav-led India dismantled Bangladesh with ease.

There was a slightly slow track on offer in the first T20I but the approach in the Powerplay showed that the Bangladesh batters were still far off from making solid shot selections across formats.

“We need to do proper planning in the next match. We need to focus on rotating the strike. T20 is not only about hitting. If we keep wickets in hand, we can get a good score,” Shanto had said at the post-match presentation.

Bangladesh lost two wickets in the Powerplay with openers Liton Das and Parvez Hossain Emon picking shots that were not on for those particular deliveries.

When Shanto was asked in the press conference whether the brand of cricket Bangladesh play is not good enough, he said: “I won’t say it is bad, but I think we are a better team than this. We have not been doing well in this format for a while but I don’t believe we are this bad.”

Bangladesh making 127 after being sent to bat first tells the story of how bad the game was for the visitors, whose standard score in the format seems to be stuck in 120-130.

Asked where they were lagging behind against an inexperienced India, he pondered slightly before replying, ‘skill and mentality.’

“We have the capability, I believe that. But there is a lot of room for improvement in skill… If you see the last 10 years, this is how we bat and sometimes we play well. So maybe when we practice at home, maybe the wicket needs to be different…there must be some sort of change.

“When we play at home, usually we get 140-150 wickets. So, batters know how to go about that but don’t know how to make 180 scores. It will be better if we practice in those sorts of wickets but it’s not just wickets, there is a mental and skill factor to it,” he said.

Going into the second T20I, Shanto and Co are in need of a quick turnaround otherwise another one-sided drubbing may be in the cards.

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