KOLKATA, Nov 24, 2019 (BSS) – Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque believes the lack of partnership at the top cost them their maiden day-night Test against India in which they suffered a yet another humiliating innings and 46-run defeat to be whitewashed in two-match Test series.
Bangladesh lost the Indore Test also by an innings and 130-run margin, after failing to show some patience against a pace attack that is regarded as the best at the moment.
Mominul, who was appointed skipper in longer version format following Shakib Al Hasan’s ICC-imposed ban, said, if they can form some partnership, the story could have been different.
“There is no point of making excuse as a professional cricket for losing the match such way. I will not make any excuse,” Mominul said after the match here at Eden Gardens on Sunday.
“As a team we could not play well and even we could not make any big partnership. If you watch the game, you will see that Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad formed a very good partnership yesterday. If we could have formed such partnership at various point of the game, we could have been competitive. We actually bated very badly,” he added.
The first innings batting indeed cost Bangladesh in both of the Test match. While they were bowled out for 143 in Indore Test, they fared badly in day-night Test here, being bundled out for just 106 runs.
Mominul admitted that facing the pace bowlers in pink ball is tougher than the red ball.
“I think it is challenging to play the pink ball rather than the red ball, especially in new ball. If we could face the new ball well, I think we could bat well, especially when dew makes the ball soft. I think pink ball is more challenging than the red ball. Since we couldn’t take the challenge, we lost the Test.”
While Bangladesh’s struggle against the pacers in the sporting wicket looked embarrassing for which cricket experts raised the question of their technical ability, Mominul said that they have no technical issue.
“I didn’t see any technical issue. But it is true that we have improve in every areas, be it technical or tactical,” he opined.
Bangladesh’s decision to bat first after winning the toss was much criticized and even the BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon also expressed his surprise over the decision. Mominul refused to make comment on president’s reaction but he gave his explanation to why he opted to bat first.
“If we fielded first, we had to bat in the second innings and had to face such sort of challenge under lights. You know how challenging it is to bat against new pink ball. When the dew makes the ball soft, it is easier to bat. If we bat in the second innings, we had to face that challenge also. That’s why we batted first.”