Frustrated, our batting is a concern: Mahmudullah

Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah didn’t shy away from accepting that his team has been struggling in the batting department after they failed to chase down a below-par target of 141 against Scotland in their opening game of the T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Al Amerat. The 35-year-old wants Bangladesh to play an aggressive brand of cricket, especially in the powerplay.

“I am very much frustrated. Our batting is a concern. We have to bat better. We have to play aggressive cricket, regardless of the situation. We have a deep batting line-up, with Mohammad Saifuddin at No. 9. We may need to think over some changes tomorrow,” Mahmudullah said.

"We didn't deliberately bat slowly. We couldn't hit those boundaries. We have to bat better next time. A lot of things will come up since we lost the game. I think we didn't play well today, but we are a good T20 team. We have the capability. When we play our best cricket, we can win games."

Chasing 141, Bangladesh lost both their openers inside six overs and could only score 25 runs. Not a single batter from Bangladesh’s top-five could operate at a strike rate of more than 105.56. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and never managed to put enough pressure on Scotland. 

“We couldn't make runs in the Powerplay. You need to start well chasing 140. I think Mushfiqur (Rahim) and Shakib (Al Hasan) made some recovery but in the middle overs, we didn't bat well even though it was on a good wicket. We made more mistakes.

"I think some big overs off the spinners would have raised our run rate, but probably losing wickets in the middle overs prevented us from getting those big overs. The asking run-rate, as a result, went up."

Mushfiqur scored 38 off 36 deliveries before getting knocked over by the Player of the Match Chris Greaves in the 14th over. Mahmudullah feels Mushfiqur’s departure turned out to be the turning point. 

"I think Mushy's wicket was the turning point. He was batting well today. A set batter has to stay. Maybe I didn't bat according to the situation. We should think better as a batting unit. If Afif (Hossain) and I, or Sohan (Nurul) and I could have carried a little longer, it would have brought us closer. But credit goes to their bowlers. They executed well. We made silly mistakes, and paid for it."