Mehidy Hasan Miraz has officially begun his journey as Bangladesh’s permanent ODI captain with this series. But the start didn’t quite meet expectations.
After splitting the first two ODIs in Colombo with one win each, today’s final ODI in Pallekele turned into an unofficial decider. Bangladesh lost the series to Sri Lanka by 99 runs in that match.
When asked if he could find any positives from the series at the awards ceremony, Miraz said, “Our team is still young, and some players are new. Of course, we always try to think positively. We need time. If they (the new players) get chances, one day they might perform well.”
Though only two players, Parvez Hossain and Tanvir Islam, made their ODI debuts in this series, seasoned players like Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, and Liton Das have been around for over a decade. Miraz himself has nearly nine years of international experience. Yet none have been able to maintain consistent form.
This lack of consistency also cost Bangladesh against Sri Lanka in this series. The batsmen’s struggles were especially evident again today. Why did the team fail? Miraz answered, “We made some mistakes; we couldn’t build partnerships in the middle overs. We didn’t form any good partnerships at the start either. I think that’s where the problem lies.”
During the chase, Bangladesh wasn’t too bad in the first 20 overs, scoring 102 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. But they lost their last 7 wickets for just 81 runs afterward.
Miraz added, “I saw a chance to win. I and Towhid (Hridoy) were batting the way we were, and we discussed that we needed to play positively. If the opportunity came, we would go for the win. We tried in the last 10 overs. Yes, sometimes things like this happen. But we tried our best.”
