Internet Desk: Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim termed the loss against England as a “learning experience” for his team.
Bangladesh blew away a golden opportunity to its first win test against England in nine attempts as they fell agonizingly short by 22 runs. England bowler Ben Stokes struck twice in three balls to give England a 22-run victory – and a 1-0 lead in the two-match series. Overnight batsman Sabbir Rahman was left unbeaten on 64 runs.
Mushfiqur brushed aside the defeat and urged his side to move ahead.
“Sometimes you have a distinctive feeling after losing a game. We tried what we could. Nobody expected Bangladesh to play in this manner after 15 months [without playing a Test] so we had to prove that we could do something.”
“We could show our character to a side like England. They have a lot of experienced players. I wouldn’t use the word frustrating but I would call it a learning experience,” said Mushfiqur after the match.
The Bangladesh captain took a lot of positives from the way his teammates played the game.
“We can take a lot of positives – Mehedi [Hasan] and Shakib [Al Hasan] bowled well. Tamim [Iqbal] batted well, and it wasn’t in his character to bat like he did. Sabbir batted well too. It was a good Test for Bangladesh.”
Mushfiqur defended debutant Sabbir Rahman for not taking the strike.
“Sabbir wouldn’t have been able to do all the scoring and it wasn’t that Taijul was really bad,” Mushfiqur said.
“If it was the last wicket, it would have been different. They had pace from both ends, understandably, so Sabbir couldn’t have taken too much risk. Taijul started well today so we took the decision that they should take a single when it is available.
“Thirty runs and two wickets is a difficult equation. The match was tilted towards them almost 90 per cent. We don’t have any tail ender who has a first-class hundred, and even if they did, there’s a huge difference between those scored in county cricket and in our first-class structure,” signed off Mushfiqur.