'A very satisfying tour'
"Very satisfied," Bangladesh Test and T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan told reporters at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday regarding the outcome of the recently-concluded tour of the West Indies.
The reason behind that, according to the ace all-rounder, was very simple: "Overall this tour was successful because we won two trophies out of three. Generally, we hardly have such results abroad."
Under Shakib's leadership the Tigers had missed the opportunity to excel in the Test series away from home as they lost both the matches in humiliating fashion, mainly because of a lacklustre batting performance.
However, guided by the inspirational Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the team regained their belief to win the ODI series 2-1 and what followed in the three-match T20I series under Shakib's leadership was simply amazing.
From an ordinary performance in the first T20I, the Tigers bounced back strongly in Florida to win the series 2-1.
Shakib believed that their success in limited-overs cricket against the West Indies provided the platform for them to approach things with a new train of thought.
"The confidence of every player is high. Especially after such a good series, I believe we can think of doing something new from here and I believe it will help us a lot in the upcoming Asia Cup," said a confident Shakib.
Shakib was also happy with his own performance. "I am very happy with my performance but it would have been even more satisfying had I contributed more."
A lot of questions have been raised about the performances of the younger cricketers in the team, especially after the success came mainly due to the contributions of the five senior stalwarts. However, Shakib offered a different perspective.
"The names you mentioned are batting in the top order so we have the most opportunity to contribute and we should have done it. That's the reason the percentage of our contribution is high," he responded to the statement that senior players had scored 71 per cent of the runs in the recently-concluded series.
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