‘Attitude the biggest takeaway’

It was for the very first time that Bangladesh managed to make a clean sweep of their opponents in all three formats in a series, completing with a thumping nine-wicket victory in the second T20I against Zimbabwe at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

The strength of this Zimbabwe team and the challenge they posed during their month-long tour may have made things easy for Bangladesh, however, Tigers' T20I captain Mahmudullah Riyad does not want the achievement to be taken lightly.

"The reason (for dominant victory) is we have managed to dominate Zimbabwe. This success should not be taken as small as there is no small or big teams in international cricket, especially in the T20s as any team can do well on a given day. The pleasing sign was that we have managed to play good cricket," Mahmudullah told the reporters at the official post-match press conference.

Bangladesh started the series by comprehensively beating the visitors by an innings and 106 runs in the one-off Test match and followed it up with a 3-0 whitewash in the ODI series before the 2-0 victory in the T20Is.

When asked whether the Tigers would take the result or the attitude they have showed in these victories, going forward, Mahmudullah replied that it is the attitude which would help the side in the coming days.

"I will first take the attitude and then the performance from this series for the upcoming assignments. I think the mindset and the hunger was very important. We had a group chat in Pakistan where we discussed on why things are not going in our favour as we can play much better cricket than that. Obviously, there were some lacks, so we were more focused in this series and the amount of work we have put was also more.

"So, we have to be more careful and remember that we can play with such dominance as the results might come in our favour in the next day but at the same time, we have to keep that belief. If we come out from this, it will be tough for us to build that again. It will be important for us to remain consistent and play good cricket against big teams," Mahmudullah said.

One of the biggest takeaways from the series for Bangladesh was the form of opener Liton Das, who scored 483 runs combined in the Test, ODIs and T20Is.

According to the 25-year-old, it is the focus in the game that has been the biggest positive for him. The player-of-the-series in the T20Is informed that he would continue to take the same approach in the coming days against tougher oppositions.

"I have performed earlier as well but I lost my focus after scoring in one game. I was very focused in this series as I tried to play according to the merit of the ball and it gave me the result. It's easy to throw it away and I think my challenge begins now," said Liton.