The last time Bangladesh had travelled to Zimbabwe for a T20I series, in 2022, they had lost 2-1. And on this tour, Zimbabwe had won both the one-off Test and the ODI series (2-1).
“It was very challenging for us because we couldn’t do well in the two previous series here, we couldn’t meet our team’s expectations. But the conditions here are a bit difficult, though we shouldn’t say that – as professional players, we have to quickly adapt to these conditions, which we were able to do in the T20 series,” Hridoy said. “But in the last two series, we made some silly mistakes. In this T20 series, we had a lot of injuries and had limited options. The fact that we got a good result despite that [is heartening].”
In the last 12 months, including this Zimbabwe series, Bangladesh have won 15 T20Is and lost 13. And there was the setback when they skipped the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka this year because of non-cricketing reasons.
“As a T20 unit, in the last couple of series, we did really well at home and away. But as a whole group, we need to develop our game in some areas,” Hridoy said. “For the World Cup, it’s too far [late 2028]. We are focusing on match by match and series [to build up to it].”
