Naive Nasum admits failure

Nasum Ahmed, the rookie left-arm spinner who made his debut earlier this year, was sent to face the press after Bangladesh suffered a huge defeat against England in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Previously, captain Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan mostly faced the media, and all of them took a dig against the press while answering the questions involving the poor showings from Bangladesh.

But after succumbing to an eight-wicket defeat against England, where Bangladesh batsmen failed to put a decent total after Mahmudullah won the toss and decided to bat, it was neither the captain nor anyone from the heavily loaded coaching staff who came in front of the media to take the blame.

Rather, the team management sent Nasum, who is so naive that upon returning from New Zealand earlier this year, he said that clearer skies there made it difficult to take catches.

Nasum had some glimpse of success on a pathetic day for Bangladesh where only two sixes of entire Bangladesh innings and made 19 runs. He also ensured that the Tigers were not losing the match by 10 wickets as he removed Jos Buttler.

Bangladesh struggled against spinners as they gave away wickets to Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone, which made Bangladesh hopeful with their spin attack. But it appeared different when England was batting.

Nasum naively admitted that it was not the day for the Tigers.

“You were saying that the wicket was like Bangladesh, but actually, it was not like that. Still, we tried to do better, tried to defend the small total. But we could not, did not happen,” said Nasum.

On the Abu Dhabi surface, 124 was not a sufficient total to defend in T20Is, and Nasum said that the bowlers often talk among themselves regarding the poor show by the batsmen.

“We talk about it among ourselves. In our conversations, we discuss that not enough runs are coming in the first six overs. Rather wickets are falling, we are sent to the back foot very early on. Everybody is trying to come out of the bad patch, but unfortunately, it’s not happening,” said Nasum with an ironic smile.

Bangladesh came into this tournament with back-to-back series wins against Australia and New Zealand at home, but with Mirpur being replaced by stadiums in UAE, that sheen has been lost.

What is the remedy to bring back the winning performance, Nasum was asked.

“To win we have to play well, what else?” he replied.

Bangladesh arrived in Oman early for preparatory camp and then played in the first qualifying round. They have played eight matches in the last 18 days including the warm-up matches. Nasum said that the players are not tired but disappointed from losing.

“As all of these are T20 matches, so it is not taking a big toll on us. But everybody is very sad and down because we are not winning,” said the left-arm spinner.

About the reverse-effect of playing on a sluggish surface and tailor-made wickets before coming to the T20 World Cup, Nasum said,

“We have three more matches. If we can win one, we will be confident in the other two. We were confident when we came to Oman, and it helped though we lost the first game but won the latter two and qualified for the super 12. Everyone is trying, but things are not clicking for us. It’s our bad luck,” he said.