'Adaptability was the key'

The Bangladesh team's victory in the first of a three-match ODI series against West Indies in Guyana was a much needed win after their disastrous two-match Test series defeat in the Caribbean. Following that triumph, former Bangladesh captain and national selector Habibul Bashar and the Tigers' coach for their inaugural Test Sarwar Imran outlined the reasons behind the 48-run win yesterday. 

I think both Shakib and Tamim batted sensibly, however, there were concerns over the run rate at one stage. Nevertheless, they played with a lot of responsibility. The way Mushfiqur Rahim finished the innings gave a huge boost. It shatters the opponent's morale when they suffer such blows in the death overs. It actually helped our players gain some spirit, which was reflected during their fielding. Another important fact is that the ball swings more in Test cricket as it's a red ball and the pitches were also more seaming friendly during the Test series. I think we still need to work on the longer format but the only place our players get competitive cricket is the Dhaka Premier League. I think the first-class leagues should also get more exposure so that the players get attracted and improve in this format. 

Obviously it's a relief for us as we did not have a good Test series and we all knew that it was not their normal game. The most important thing about the match was the way our batters adapted to the pitch and if you noticed, we scored just thirty runs in the first ten overs, which is not our style of play. Both Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal are stroke-makers but they did not get assistance from the wicket. I am happy about the fact that none of them threw away their wickets while going after the ball and they were able to read the nature of the pitch. In this type of wicket it's hard to score runs initially but you can go after the bowlers later. If they did not bat well till the 40th over, it would have been hard for us to post such a total as it is tough for a new batsman to score high instantly. I think it was a much needed result keeping the situation in mind.