DHAKA, July 9, 2023 (BSS)- The ODI series defeat to Afghanistan certainly 
sent a shockwave to the Bangladesh cricket given that the format is their 
favourite one and since 2015, they didn't loss any series at home barring at 
the hands of world champions England.

Afghanistan though always a strong side in limited over cricket, they even 
were no match for Bangladesh in this format. Before this series, the win-loss 
ratio was absolutely in Bangladesh's favour, as they won seven and lost four.

Afghanistan now closed the gap, winning the first two matches of the series 
but that mattered little for Bangladesh team management. What matters most is 
that, the defeat exposed several holes, which urgently should be plugged but 
Bangladesh have just three months at hands before the World Cup. In between 
they would also play Asia Cup.

While it was believed the time is very short to fix all those problems, 
Bangladesh allrounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz believed they are able to rectify 
those. 

"The lacking that we had in these two matches and the mistakes we made will 
allow us to become more alert since we have big series ahead of us," Miraz 
said, adding: "We have Asia Cup and World Cup games against them and I hope 
we would be able to overcome our errors."

Bangladesh lost the first game by 17 runs on DLS and the second one by 142 
runs, which was their biggest ever defeat by runs against Afghanistan. On 
both occasions, Bangladesh's batting looked shaky and out-of-sort.

Apart from Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, no one seemed to have any 
answer against the guile of Afghan spinners Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. 
Specially it appeared Rashid's googly was hard to fathom. 

Najmul Hossain Shanto and Liton Das, who of late have been in their form of 
life got reality check that how tough it is to deal with a quality bowler in 
the International cricket.

Most of the runs of Liton and Shanto came in helpful pitch but it's not that 
the pitch of second ODI was unhelpful. Afghanistan put up 331-9 in this pitch 
but what made the difference was Rashid Khan who took the pitch out of 
equation. And Bangladesh cricketers apart from Shakib and Mushfiqur lacked 
courage against the legspinner. 

Although Shakib could score only 25, he showed how to deal with Rashid while 
Mushfiqur battled lonely to scorer 69 before the last batter out. 

As the defeat is like a blessing in disguise, Miraz said every player now can 
plan individually to how they would handle a particular bowler. 

"One thing that was good is that we have an opportunity now. Losing this 
series meant we can work on where we lacked and where we need to improve. 
Since we have World Cup and Asia Cup games against them, we can plan our 
batters' gameplan, which bowlers we can target or how we can stop their 
batters. Since we have three months before World Cup and one-and-a-half month 
before Asia Cup, every cricketer can plan individually. Since we have time, 
it would be good,"

Miraz reckoned that Bangladesh didn't become a bad ODI side overnight because 
of this series defeat.

"I had told at a press conference before that if we played this series badly, 
it wouldn't mean we have become a bad side. Our record is very good and we 
qualified for the World Cup. Our team combinations are good and the players 
are in good touch. Overall we are confident," he said.