T20 tri-series | Cricket is a team sport, and we’re not playing as a team, admits Shakib Al Hasan
Shakib Al Hasan has rued his team’s inability to perform collectively after their 25-run loss against Afghanistan at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium on Sunday. Although he acknowledges that the visitors are a better T20 outfit than them, Shakib feels that his team gifted Afghanistan a win yesterday.
On one side are Afghanistan, reaping the rewards of their team’s cohesion, with a mammoth Test win and now two dominant performances in T20s. On the other side are the hosts continuing their downward spiral since the World Cup with yet another loss on home soil. Their skipper Shakib is disappointed at the lack of support that the rest of his team are offering to the one or two main performers.
''It's happening like in every match - one or two players are performing while most of the others are not. For any side, most of the players perform and one or two fails. At the end of the day it is a team sport and we are not playing as a team and that is why winning is becoming more difficult for us,'' Shakib said, reported Cricbuzz.
However, Shakib did not shy away from admitting that their opponents, Afghanistan, are a better T20 side. Afghanistan’s win yesterday put them level with Australia for the record of successive T20I wins.Â
"They are a big team in T20 cricket. They are ranked number seventh while we are at ranked 10th. West Indies and Sri Lanka are above us and we beat them sometimes. But you have to say we have given them the match because at one stage we could have grabbed the game with two hands, which we did not do,” Shakib said.
But with two matches still to play, there is still time for the hosts to turn their fortunes around and make a shot at the final.Â
''We suffered a lot, conceded 15-16 extra runs and that put us behind. After all these mistakes, the difference is only 25 runs. If we can reduce these mistakes we will have more winning opportunity. We still have two matches. Zimbabwe has lost two matches in two, it'll be difficult for them. I am pretty confident our team has the ability to play in the final,'' Shakib added.
