DHAKA, – Bangladesh cricket team players returned home on Thursday after a frustrating series in Sri Lanka in which they faced an embarrassing whitewash in a three-match ODI series.
The team arrived at the Shahjalal International Airport today at around 2 pm though they were initially supposed to arrive earlier at 11:30am
(Bangladesh Time).
Due to a delay in flight for a technical problem, the Tigers left Colombo at 9:45 am (Sri Lanka Time). Visiting Sri Lanka with an aim to win their first bilateral series, the Tiger put up a disappointing performance in all departments.
Although most of the key players like Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mohammad Saifuddin were not with the team in their SL tour, the side that was sent to Sri Lanka was believed to be competent of beating Sri Lanka.
Shakib and Liton were granted leave for their personal affairs while Mashrafe and Saifuddin were ruled out from the side at the eleventh hour
after sustaining injury.
Bangladesh though had a disappointing World Cup outing, finishing eighth at the point table, they were still favourites against Sri Lanka, being a
higher ranked team and also considering their superior performance against the Lankans in recent time.
Tamim Iqbal, who captained the side in the series, was confident that they could beat Sri Lanka. All-rounder Mosaddek Hossain, Soumya Sarkar even
confidently dubbed themselves favorites before the series had started.
During the three-match ODI series, the Lankans showed how strong they are at their home den. But Bangladesh’s listless batting, wayward bowling and shoddy fielding contributed to their humiliating defeat against Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh lost the first match by 91 runs and second one by seven wickets before tasting their fifth whitewash at the hands of Lankans losing the last
match by 122 runs. It was overall their 27th whitewash in their cricket history.
By winning this series, Sri Lanka also proved a point that they could even beat Bangladesh in the World Cup if the match was not washed out.
However, the result could have been different if Shakib Al Hasan who performed brilliantly in the just concluded World Cup was with the team.
Shakib had scored 606 runs and taken 11 wickets in the cricket’s biggest extravaganza to create some unique records.
Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne, however, was gracious enough to admit that Shakib’s absence put them in an advantageous position in the
series. The Tigers now are looking forward to regroup them after their disappointing series.
