The last T20 match against India was Mahmudullah Riyad’s farewell match. At the same time, the last match of Bangladesh tour of India. Bangladesh tried to make this match memorable. But that did not happen, on the contrary, Taskin Ahmed and Rishad Hossain flew away in India’s batting frenzy. Mahmudullah’s farewell match was flooded with four-six rain. Bangladesh lost by a huge margin of 133 runs.
Tawheed’s heart was filled with regret for losing this match. It’s not for match loss, it’s for wickets. Such wickets are not available in Bangladesh soil. Bangladesh’s main venue Mirpur has a spin-friendly wicket at the Sher Bangla National Cricket Stadium. It is the spinners who get the advantage. The run comes in time. Heart desires sporting wickets. Where runs can be scored, wickets will also fall. This batsman is not looking at the option of sporting pitch to improve his batting.
Speaking at the press conference after the match, Hridoy said, ‘To be honest, the wicket is very good for batting. We did not bowl well. We can improve in some areas. Hopefully we can do that. We have to improve in some places in batting, bowling, fielding.’
‘You see, every team gets runs from the top order. When there is a run, there is a big run naturally. If a big run comes from the top four, then the run is 180. All in all we have a lot of room for improvement. This series has a lot to learn for us. I hope I can do that.’- added Hridoy.
Lamenting for the wicket, Hridoy said, ‘There was a shortage everywhere. One day the batting is good, the bowling is not good, if the bowling is good, the batting is not good. We don’t actually play on this kind of wicket. I’m not making excuses. But we will do better the more we play on such wickets.’
The batsman added, ‘We cannot read maximum player wickets. We play maximum cricket in Mirpur. If I play in Chittagong, I know what wicket will be. But other places have different wickets every day. If we keep playing good wickets, we can improve day by day. It won’t happen overnight. India can be an example for us. We need to improve in all departments.’
Earlier, pacer Taskin Ahmed had expressed anger over the pitch after losing the second match. Taskin commented, ‘180-200 is their regular run. Which is maybe 130-40 for us, at home. This practice is very little of us, which is a reality. Hope our home condition will improve in future. We will have the ability to chase bigger runs, to defend.’
Taskin also demanded the opportunity to play in different foreign leagues, ‘At the same time, if we can play the franchise league at leisure, we will have a better experience. The better the wickets and structure of our domestic leagues, the better off we will be.’
Taskin and Hridyo made their demands known. Now it’s time to see, whether Bangladesh should play on the familiar wicket of Mirpur or give the Taskin-hearts a chance to improve by playing on the sporting pitch.