Former Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan has said that the series loss to the USA is "very disappointing" and a "wake-up call" before the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
Bangladesh are 2-0 behind the USA in a three-match series and will be playing to salvage their pride in the third and final fixture on May 25 at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
"Certainly it is disappointing and we didn't expect it but we must give credit to the US team for the way they have played," Shakib was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. I think no one expected that we will lose two games. Any match you lose as a team is disappointing and you don't want to lose a game and obviously it is very disappointing. But having said that we have to play the World Cup and this series might be a wake-up call for us as we haven't played the way we want to play."
"It's a team game and everyone has to take the responsibility - you win as a team and you lose as a team. I don't want to blame any particular person or any particular department. It's just that T20 is such a format you have to play very good cricket in all three departments to win against any team. There are no small or big teams in T20 cricket and that's why it is more exciting than any other format. And the proof of that is in the last two games the way US played."
Shakib mentioned that they didn't take their opponents lightly and failed to execute their plans on the field of play which resulted in two consecutive losses.
"I don't think we took them lightly. In the first game maybe we couldn't do what we wanted to do and in the second game exactly the same thing happened - we couldn't execute the plans that we were supposed to do on the ground."
"In T20 every team is very much equal. I have seen the game between West Indies A and Nepal and they really played well and you are seeing games between Ireland and Netherlands and they are playing very close matches. Pakistan lost to Ireland and in T20 it is anybody's game," Shakib added.
"It is on the day who performs better, and so you cannot take anything lightly in T20 cricket because one or two overs can change the momentum of the game and completely change the scenario of the game. That's why you are always up for the challenges and you cannot take anything lightly or anything for granted," he mentioned.
