Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque admitted that his side lost the baton completely on the day one following their batting debacle in the first innings, which saw them being bundled out for only 150.
India reached 86-1 and trailed by only 64 runs before the bails were drawn for the day. With the World Class line up, the hosts got, it is expected they would be reluctant to bat for the second time in the match.
Bangladesh practically only can claw back into the match if they bowl extremely well but as Kohli suggested after the toss that the Indore pitch traditionally becomes batting paradise on day two, after assisting the bowlers in day one, the visitors sensed a worst thing.
“Practically we are much behind [against India],” Mominul said after the day one’s game at Holkar Stadium in Indore.
“After scoring just 150 in the first innings, it is very tough [to bounce back]. No matter how positive you are, it is really tough to recover after such performance. And in between, they had already scored 86 for the loss of one. If we look at the future of the match, I think we are much behind,” he added.
Mominul, who saw the tougher side of captaincy on his captaincy debut as Bangladesh’s 11th Test captain, insisted on to be mentally strong to deal with such type of tough situation.
His suggestion came in the wake of Bangladeshi batsmen’s lack of application against a bowling line up that had express pacers and wily spinners. Bangladeshi batsmen even sometimes looked trembling against the Indian fast bowlers who operated over 140 km pace.
“International cricket is always challenging and in Indian soil against India, it is much tougher. I think we should be mentally strong and that is the only thing to counter such sort of adversities,” he added.
Mominul also admitted that his decision to bat first was wrong as he knew the fast bowler would get the advantage of the first day’s Indore pitch.
“When you suffer such sort of batting debacle, the toss factor would come first. Personally, I think, it is my mistake. It at least seemed to be a mistake but later I and Mushfiqur Rahim coped with the wicket very well. Liton also adjusted well. It is also my mistake because if I wouldn’t have dismissed in that period, we can score big,” said Mominul who shared a 68-run partnership with Mushfiqur after Bangladesh was reduced to 31-3 in the first hour.
“The wicket has no demons and it is not unplayable. The team against which we are playing is No. 1 team. When you play against them, you have to be mentally strong but it’s the thing where we lagged behind. I think we also have a lack of concentration.” he added.
Mominul, however, didn’t point out the lack of practice match as the reason of their batting debacle in the match. “I think we have had good practice because we played the NCL before coming here. Yes, we didn’t play such sort of bowlers back in the country. Against those sort of bowlers, you won’t do everything with just being technically fit. You have to be mentally strong,” he pointed out.
While Indian pacers brought the best out of the pitch, Bangladesh pacers, barring Abu Jayed Rahi looked shaky. But Mominul backed them, saying those inexperienced bowlers need time to learn.
“They have just played 5/6 matches overall. So you can’t blame them. They need time to adjust,” he added.
