Focus on teamwork as Bangladesh look for comeback against New Zealand

Bangladesh batsman Sabbir Rahman believes the lack of teamwork among the players has led the team to perform poorly in New Zealand.

Although there have been individual performances here and there so far, those have not accounted for a win during their first overseas tour after two years.

After losing the first Twenty20 International in Napier, Bangladesh will take on the hosts in the second and third matches at Mt Maunganui on Friday and Sunday.

The T20 series comes on the back of a 3-0 whitewash by the Black Caps in the ODI series.

“We’ve come here to play good cricket. We are not being able to do that, but that doesn’t mean we are not capable of doing it,” Sabbir told reporters on Thursday.

“We are focusing harder in the next two matches, so that we can win those."

“There have been some individual performances, but no team performances yet. We are keeping an eye on that.”

T20s are Sabbir’s favourite format. He has an acute understanding of the shortest version.

He urged his teammates to not play in a premeditated fashion.

“We got to play according to the situation. The bowlers can win a match, the fielders can grab a couple of great catches to win a match. The batsmen, too, can score 200 runs to get a win. All the departments can do it,” he added

“To do well in T20s, each department has to do well. We made only 141 in the last match yet we were able to stretch the match up to 18 overs, thanks to the bowlers. We may have won had we scored 160-170.”

Sabbir’s own performance this series, however, leaves much to be desired.

He has made great starts in all four matches so far in New Zealand but got dismissed early each time. He is yet to get a half-century in the series.

Split-second mistakes ended his innings, which read 16, 38, 19 and 16.  He got out cheaply off a full toss in the last match at McLean Park.

“I’m not having much problem with batting but I’m getting out suddenly,” Sabbir said.

“Speaking about the full toss ball... I never expected the ball to come at me like that. I was a bit surprised and got out. It was my failure really.

°But I’m working on the mental aspects. I hope I can do better in the upcoming matches.”

Bangladesh go into the last two matches of the limited-overs series with an unchanged squad.