Mashrafe sees more room for improvement in upcoming games

After their recent struggles in the T20 whitewash against Afghanistan and the Test whitewash against the West Indies, the Bangladesh national cricket team finally triumphed on Saturday, as a century from Tamim Iqbal and a half-century from Mahmudullah powered the Tigers to an ODI series win against the West Indies.

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the captain of Bangladesh’s ODI team, says the victory was crucially needed. But the skipper did not forget to remind the squad that there was room for improvement.

Bangladesh’s 18-run win on Saturday brought the first series victory from a tour abroadin nine years.

It was essential not just for finally breaking the streak, but also to overcome Bangladesh’s recent slump.

Bangladesh will play in the 2018 Asia Cup, a One-Day International tournament, in September. The captain believes that the win will help the team lift their spirits for the upcoming series.

“Reviewing our performances over the last three or four months, it is clear that this win was crucially needed. It is definitely a good sign for us. But I think we have to improve more in some specific areas, where we are not playing well,” Mashrafe said.

“We need to significantly improve our fielding performance. Some bits of our batting and bowling also need some work.”

Mashrafe named pacer Rubel Hossain as an example of the desired change. Rubel, who had been costly near the tail end of the innings in several matches, had managed to only give away six runs in the penultimate over of the match.

This is the sort of improvement the captain is looking for.

“Rubel managed to do exactly what we needed from him. Now we need to repeat this kind of performance going forward.”

“We knew the wicket was good. I was thinking it might have been good to put 20-25 more runs on the scoreboard. We needed to take wickets early because the top of their batting order is quite good.”

“Fortunately, Lewis was dismissed early, putting more pressure on Gayle. He was playing well. And I have to praise Rubel again. He came in and got us the breakthrough we needed, making it easier for the other bowlers.”