Bangladesh’s Taskin Ahmed calls Indian players ‘the best in world’

Both wickets were pretty good to bat but as a team we didn't play to our best potential, says the pacer

New Delhi: Indian players are the best in the world and can bat well in any conditions, said Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed while conceding that batting frailties have let down the visitors in the T20I series, which the hosts lead 2-0 with one match left to play.

Bangladesh face a potential series whitewash after losing the second T20I by 86 runs, having lost the first match by 7 wickets.
“(There is) no doubt that they are (the) best in the world, not only in their (home) conditions but all over the world. They are more experienced and better players than us,” Taskin told the media on Wednesday.

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The pace trio of Taskin, Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Mustafizur Rahman outfoxed the Indian top order inside the powerplay, putting Bangladesh in a strong position.

However, the spinners couldn’t maintain that advantage, allowing the pair of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rinku Singh to rescue the hosts and get to a formidable total of 221/9.

“In the powerplay, we did well, but they batted well in the end and unfortunately spinners had a bad day. Normally, we don’t have these kind of bad days but in T20 anything can happen on any day,” Taskin said.

“The spinners could not grip the ball as there was dew. We were in the game till the 11th or 12th over and on this wicket, if we had kept them under 180 runs, it was chaseable,” said Taskin, who was the pick among the bowlers with 4-0-16-2.

In reply, Bangladesh managed a mere 135/9 in their 20 overs, a total that would have been even lower if not for the veteran Mahmudullah’s contribution of 41 runs off 39 balls.

“We all know the Delhi ground is a high scoring (venue), the average (score) is more than 200. But unfortunately we didn’t bat well in both the games (in the series). Both wickets were pretty good to bat but as a team we didn’t play to our best potential,” he said.

“They batted really well till the end. It doesn’t matter if a few wickets fell, they were still coming at us and because of the big total (to chase), we tried to hit and lost a couple of wickets early on and also the momentum.”

Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto previously acknowledged that his team struggles to consistently score 180 or more runs, and Taskin believes this ongoing difficulty stems from their lack of experience on quality pitches back home.

“They score 180 to 200 runs regularly. For us that is 130-40 at home. We don’t have that habit (of scoring big runs) and that is the reality. Hopefully, in the coming days, our home conditions will get better and at that point we can chase big runs and defend as well.

Apart from their lacklustre performance with the bat, Bangladesh also missed a crucial opportunity by dropping Nitish Kumar Reddy, who went on to score a match-winning 74. He was let off the hook by wicketkeeper Litton Das when he was on just 5 runs.

“(A) catch drop is always costly, especially against an opponent like them who are best in the world. The margin of error is very small and so it was costly,” Taskin said.