Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto has credited Sri Lanka's emerging pace sensation Nuwan Thushara for his sensational bowling performance that helped the visitors clinch the three-match T20I series 2-1 at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Saturday (March 9).
Thushara's match-winning spell saw him claim a hat-trick and bag his maiden five-wicket haul in international cricket. Thushara's slinging action ripped the Bangladeshi batting order to shreds and made the Bangladesh batters look clueless during the run chase of 175.
Najmul was Thushara's first victim of the day and the first of the three players whom he dismissed on consecutive balls to claim his hat-trick.
Reflecting on the game, Najmul mentioned that had the hosts handled the new ball better, then "it would have been a different ball game".
"I think if we could've played that over well or handled the new ball in a better way, it would have been a different ball game," Najmul was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. "This doesn't always happen (such kind of an over) and I must credit the bowler the way he bowled and it was not easy. But in such a situation, how we can minimize the damage will be important for us."
"I think he was getting some swing with that action and he didn't have a lot of bounce the action is side-on action and as the ball was keeping low there was swing along with that," he added.
The Bangla Tigers' captain also mentioned that playing on wickets like the one that was prepared for the T20I series decider can help in their preparation for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024.
"I think we should play T20 matches in these kind of wickets. The bowlers are learning that you have to bowl well in good wickets and batters understand how to chase 170-180-200 runs. This is good preparation before the World Cup," he concluded.
