Bangladesh Women's Cricket: A Reality Check After Australia's Clean Sweep
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Bangladesh Women's Cricket: A Reality Check After Australia's Clean Sweep
The Bangladesh women's cricket team entered their home series against Australia with high hopes, buoyed by their recent success against India. However, the visitors proved to be too strong, clean sweeping the hosts in both ODIs and T20Is.
The failure to compete against Australia in any game was a wake-up call for the home team, who are set to host the upcoming T20 World Cup. Bangladesh head coach Hashan Tillakaratne expressed concerns over the lack of challenge from his team.
"It's been disappointing," Tillakaratne told reporters after the series-concluding T20I game. "It's about the way we played, and I don't mind losing as we are playing the top side in the world. How we played against them or about challenging them, that's been disappointing."
Tillakaratne pointed out that the batters had a reasonable series against South Africa but failed to step up against Australia.
"Playing against a top side, you are taught to use your game experience, and they [opposition] challenge you as well. No excuses, but it's the first time we played Australia in a bilateral series, but the way we applied ourselves, I don't think that's excusable."
Tillakaratne added that the team needs to analyze their performance and identify areas for improvement.
"We have to go back to our drawing board and see where we went wrong and come back strongly because no one has performed very well against Australia. Except for one or two performances, everyone failed miserably."
Tillakaratne also acknowledged the fear factor that played a role in the team's performance.
"Fear factor and fear of failure [was there] because this is the first time playing a bilateral series against Australia. I haven't seen this when we played India, South Africa, and Pakistan because they are a little reluctant to express themselves against Australia and they were little scared, and that is where we went wrong against Australia."
Despite the disappointing results, Tillakaratne remains optimistic about the team's future.
"We want to have a chat with the girls first and do an honest debrief and see what went wrong and take it from there. There is no point chopping and changing because we must understand that we invested a lot on these girls, and I am sure that with time they will make a comeback."
Meanwhile, Australian skipper Alyssa Healy expressed satisfaction with her team's performance.
"Yeah, I think from Australia's perspective, I think we got everything we possibly could have had on this trip. Opportunities were given when necessary, and the results went our way," Healy told reporters.
Healy believes the series was a positive step in their preparations for the T20 World Cup.
"From the big picture perspective and what we are building towards, we got everything we possibly could from this series. More positives than negatives, and the way the group looked after one another was even more important. So, hopefully going to be an exciting 12 months for this group."
The Bangladesh women's team has a busy schedule ahead, with home series against India and the T20 Asia Cup before the T20 World Cup. They will need to address the issues identified in the Australia series to be competitive in these upcoming tournaments.