Asia Cup 2023: We are concerned with our batting – Shakib Al Hasan

Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan admitted they are concerned with their batting after their 21-run loss against Sri Lanka in the Super Fours stage match at the R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Saturday. The Tigers had to chase 258 against the hosts but they were skittled out for only 236 and lost their second Super Fours stage match.

Ergo, the Shakib Al Hasan-led team is now staring at the exit doors of the ongoing Asia Cup. Barring Towhid Hridoy, who scored a fine knock of 82 runs, none of the Bangladesh batters could get going in the run-chase.

In fact, three batters – Mohammad Naim, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, and Mushfiqur Rahim – got past the 20-run mark but none of them could go on to convert their starts.

On the other hand, Maheesh Theekshana, Dasun Shanaka, and Matheesha Pathirana scalped three wickets each for Sri Lanka.

“Our batting is going downwards for the last six months (in ODIs) since the series against England and later Afghanistan, now in this tournament and we need to work on it,” Shakib told reporters after the game against Sri Lanka.

“We are concerned with our batting and we need to see those areas and work on it so that we can rectify those areas. This tournament before the World Cup will be hugely beneficial because we need to have a reality check,” he said.

“We always play well in bilateral series and you cannot say we are a bad team but our big test is taken in this kind of tournament where we don’t perform extraordinarily. We won three matches in 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 World Cup so people can say a lot of things but when we have a reality check usually we fail. It is good that the tournament was played before the World Cup and everyone will think how we can solve this problem and only after that can we do better,” Shakib said.

“We don’t have history because we have not succeeded (in big tournaments) though we played two or three finals in Asia Cup and if we could win it would have been better but we are always a promising side,” he added.

Bangladesh will now have to depend on other team’s results in order to qualify for the final and they must beat India in their last Super Fours stage match on Friday.

The Tigers haven’t been able to execute their batting plans and it has led to their downfall in the recent past. The bowlers did a decent job in restricting Sri Lanka to 257 but the batters could not back them up.