Usually, the day after a Test match ends, the players rest, but after suffering a crushing defeat to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh coach Shane Jurgensen had his boys in the field practicing yesterday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Jurgensen said that this was the worst his side had performed since the Australian took over and added that the players had been distracted by ICC issues. “I am very disappointed after the first Test. The cricket we have played in the last match is no way near to our standard. I have sat with the cricketers yesterday (Thursday) and discussed our mistakes but we have no much time left before the next Test, so we have to move on quickly,” he said.
Shane Jurgensenadded that poor performance was linked with the recent issue of the ICC’s draft proposal, as it served to distract the players,“I think there was also a little distraction before the game that probably didn’t help either with the ICC, but at the same time there are no excuses. We are representing Bangladesh in international cricket and we just couldn’t quite come through and play well in this game.”
The Tigers were terrible in every department of the game and the Australian said that since he took charge, this was the poorest the team had been.“Probably we are played out in all departments in the last game. We really hadn’t had a game like this since I have been around or for a while. It hasn’t been often and that is the way we have to look at it. We’ve got to look at the positives and say that it’s just a bad game.
“We did not bat well and struggled for long periods and kept losing wickets. When we bowled, I think there were good period for the bowlers, but they (Sri Lanka) batted well. We did not put enough pressure in the field and missed a few chances,” he added.
However Jurgensen praised Shakib and young pacer Al-Amin and informed that Shakib showed his class with both bat and ball, “I think Shakib showed his class with the bat and theball and Al-Amin was very good with the ball. For such a young bowler he got better and better with every spell. I think Robiul got better the more he bowled also,” said Jurgensen.
The 37-year old said that whatever the wicket was, the fact that Bangladesh could not play well since batsmen were unable to hang ontotheir wickets, “Whatever the wicket was we did not play well. It could have been a sporting wicket or a flat wicket or turning wicket and you still need to stand up and bat well, bowl well and field well and we really did not do that,” he said.
Though Bangladesh are now down 0-1 in the Test series, the tiger coach is hopeful of making a comeback in Chittagong, where both teams will arrive today as the BCB announced an unchanged squad for the second Test. “This has happened before in Zimbabwe where we lost the first Test matchand that is when you work harder with a purpose. I will just work harder and get their heads in the right space and make sure we have good plans in Chittagong,” he said.
