Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim, after three defeats in as many matches, admitted they are not a strong side in the shortest format of the game while at the same time having four to five players off form also cost them heavily in the ongoing World Twenty20.
“It is true (that expectations are low in T20). But for it to happen like this, I would say that we are a team capable of putting up a fight, said Mushfiq after their defeat to Pakistan at SBNS yesterday.
“The four or five players that we have, if they were in peak form, maybe the games would have been different. Maybe we would have gone close or on a good day we could have beaten a big team. But it is true that we are not a strong T20 outfit on paper. And the teams that we were playing against are much stronger. Apart from the Hong Kong game, we played well in the first round, but in this round we were disappointing. We did not expect that we would play this badly.”
Bangladesh were fighting neck-to-neck with their opponents on 71 for three after 10 overs, but some big overs off the seamers took the game away, thought Mushfiq. Mashrafe produced 63 runs off his four, while overall 122 runs came from the nine overs bowled by the pacers.
“When you are losing, it will affect not only me. No one wants to go there and lose the game. It is really disappointing. Against India, Pakistan or those teams, we have not been performing well in T20s.
“We don’t have powerful batsmen down there or match winners, not four or five. There are a few but not like Ajmal, Afridi, Gul or Hafeez. We are really trying our best, but some of the boys are not in their peak form, so that doesn’t help. Hopefully we have one more game to go, and if we can win the last game that will give us something to cheer,” he said.
Things are certainly not going according to plans and Mushfiq thought replacing the off peak players won’t change the scenario as well.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Shehzad became the only Pakistani cricketer to score a century in all three formats and he was jubilant to achieve the feat. At the same time the 22-year-old blasted the media who criticized him for not performing in the first two matches.
“To be very honest I have been hearing too many things after having not performed in the last two matches and this is the game when you don’t perform pressure comes on you,” Shehzad said.
“But this is the time when you have to show the character and come out. I just backed myself and stick to my plan and my captain and coaches supported me and like to thank them.
“I want to dedicate the century to those who critisise me and love me and for all of them who said bad things against me so this is a gift from me to all of them all over the world and for Pakistan,” said Shehzad who also became the only Pakistani opener to have a century in T20Is.
