Bangladesh Women’s team was unable to win a single T20 or ODI match in their home conditions against the mighty Australians.
The Bangladesh women’s outfit was beaming with confidence ahead of the home series against Australia. Taking inspiration from their recent success against India, the home team were determined to give the tourists a run for their money. However, in reality, they were brought down to earth as the visitors cleanly swept them away in both ODIs and T20Is.
The failure to compete against Australia in any game was a warning sign for the home team slated to host the forthcoming T20 World Cup. Bangladesh head coach Hashan Tillakaratne admitted concerns over his troops’ lack of challenge.
“Well it’s been disappointing,” Tillakaratne told reporters following their series-concluding T20I game at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday. “It’s about the way we played and I don’t mind losing as we are playing the top side in the world. How we played against them or about challenging them, that’s been disappointing,” he said.
“I thought they [batters] had a reasonable series against South Africa. Playing against a top side, you are taught to use your game experience and they [the opposition] challenge you as well. No excuses but it’s the first time we played Australia in a bilateral series but the way we applied ourselves, I don’t think that’s excusable.”
Tillakaratne added that they need to go to the drawing board to understand where they went wrong while pointing out that the fear of failure played a big part as well.
“We have to go back to our drawing board and see where we went wrong and come back strongly because no one has performed very well against Australia. Except for one or two performances, everyone failed miserably.
“Fear factor and fear of failure [was there] because this is the first time playing a bilateral series against Australia. I haven’t seen this when we played India, South Africa and Pakistan because they are a little reluctant to express themselves against Australia and they were a little scared and that is where we went wrong against Australia,” he said.
“We want to chat with the girls first and do an honest debrief to see what went wrong and take it from there. There is no point chopping and changing because we must understand that we invested a lot in these girls and I am sure that with time they will make a comeback,” he said.
“Of course playing against them is a big positive and we know how they raise the bar and if we have to challenge or compete against top sides what are the areas we need to improve,” he said.
“As a part of the coaching staff, I would say the girls need to improve considerably because it’s not easy even though we are down and disappointed. But we have to come back,” he concluded pointing his fingers towards the upcoming home series against India followed by the T20 Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup.
While Bangladesh got a reality check, Australian skipper Alyssa Healy looked satisfied as they dominated throughout the series in both ODIs and T20Is. The tourists seemed to have ticked all the boxes in terms of handing opportunities as well as building momentum before the T20 World Cup, slated to be played in Bangladesh in September-October this year.
“Yeah, I think from Australia’s perspective, I think we got everything we possibly could have had on this trip. Opportunities were given when necessary and the results went our way,” Healy told reporters following their successful tour.
“From the big picture perspective and what we are building towards, we got everything we possibly could from this series. More positives than negatives and the way the group looked after one another was even more important. So, hopefully going to be an exciting 12 months for this group,” she said.
