Can’t complain about preparation: Tamim

Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal said that they can not blame lack of preparation for their miserable failure in the first ODI against New Zealand today. The hosts registered an easy eight-wicket victory against the Tigers at the University Oval in Dunedin. 

Bangladesh are on their fifth tour of New Zealand and today's defeat meant that the hosts won 27 matches straight against the Tigers on their home soil. 

While in their previous four tours, there was a scope for the Tigers to pin the blame on lack of time for preparation and adjusting to Kiwi conditions, but there remains no such opportunity this time around. A 20-member Bangladesh squad landed in New Zealand on February 24 and after undergoing a 14-day Managed Isolation & Quarantine (MIQ) in Christchurch -- during which period they were able to practice and do gym session in small groups from the seventh day of quarantine after returning three negative coronavirus tests -- the Tigers had a five-day camp at Queenstown. They also played an inter-squad warm-up game involving a few locals in Queenstown before going to Dunedin. They also had two practice sessions at the University Oval in Dunedin ahead of their first ODI.       

"We practiced a couple of days here [in Dunedin], I cannot complain about our preparation. It's not new to us, we know what to expect," said a dejected Tamim during the post-match press conference today.  

A lack of application from the likes of Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad saw them fail to convert their starts to anything meaningful in today's game. And Tamim also blamed the soft dismissals for their paltry score of 131.

"I thought there were too many soft dismissals. No doubt they bowled really well, but we have ourselves to blame. We take pride in our batting and that was nowhere near enough," concluded Tamim.