Poor form from the batters was the primary reason for Bangladesh's disappointing T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, according to vice captain Taskin Ahmed. He said that almost everything went according to plan except the batting during Bangladesh's 47-day tour of the Americas.
In a tough environment for batters across the tournament, Bangladesh's batting unit had the lowest collective average among the Super Eight teams.
Bangladesh's top three failed to give them a start in any of their innings with Litton Das scoring the lone fifty from those positions. Towhid Hridoy's 153 runs at 128.57 was their best batting performance but Shakib (111 runs at 106.73 SR) and Mahmudullah (95 runs at 94.05 SR) couldn't provide him with enough support in the middle order.
"The seniors' off-form had an effect on the team but not off the field," Taskin told reporters at the Dhaka airport, after the Bangladesh team's arrival on Friday morning. "They are great team men. We stayed as a team for 47 days. Everything was fine off the field. It is quite normal that a team will have problems when important players are not in form. I am hopeful that we can recover from this, and play better soon."
Taskin said that the batters only found better pitches when they reached the West Indies but even then he said that he hadn't seen such a long batting slump by Bangladesh in his international career.
"When you talk about the batting, if you look at the statistics, I think every [teams'] batting department suffered in the USA this time. Bowlers got a lot of help. We got better [batting] wickets in the West Indies.
"I haven't seen such a long bad patch for the batters in my ten years playing for Bangladesh. I hope it goes away quickly.
"We never had great numbers in T20s. We are improving slowly. We cannot just look at minus points; we are in the negative already. We are trying to get a 'plus'. Your frustration is expected. We will give you a good win. You have to keep faith in us. We will give it our best."
Taskin was part of a strong bowling display from Bangladesh. He was returning from injury but Tanzim Hasan and legspinner Rishad Hossain led the bowling charts; Rishad remains in joint-third position among the tournament's top wicket-takers, ahead of the final. Taskin said that it proved talented cricketers are coming up from Bangladesh.
"The bowling unit has been doing well for the last few years. We have been consistent. It will keep getting better.
"Tanzim and Rishad are among the tournament's top wicket-takers. It is a positive. We have some future stars emerging from Bangladesh. It says that we have ability. What has taken place has hurt us and the fans, especially our inability to win certain matches," he said.
Taskin said that they were left disappointed with the last game against Afghanistan especially, when Bangladesh had to chase down their target in 12.1 overs to make it to the semi-finals but couldn't get the job done.
"We could have done a lot better. We were all quite disappointed with the last match. We tried to win it in 12 overs, but when we realised it wasn't possible, we tried to win the game. We still couldn't win.
"There are positives from the campaign. Our bowlers did very well throughout the tournament. We qualified to the Super Eight. We won three matches in the T20 World Cup for the first time. So there are positives, but there are negatives too. We are disappointed like the rest of you. We didn't play up to expectations."