'Top order needs to utilise Powerplay well' – Soumya Sarkar

"We are ready to take up the challenge. We are trailing 1-0 and we will try to make a strong comeback," said Sarkar on Wednesday, 19 December, the eve of the second T20I. "In the opening match, we made few mistakes and lost early wickets and if we don't make those mistakes, it will be good for us."

Bangladesh were bowled out for a paltry 129, which the Windies chased down with ease in just 10.5 overs. The hosts' captain Shakib Al Hasan top-scored with a 43-ball 61, while the rest of the line-up failed to provide resistance with only two other batsmen scoring in double-digits.

With a target of only 130, Sarkar admitted that there wasn't much for the bowlers to defend and credited the Windies batsmen, especially Shai Hope, who scored a fiery 23-ball 55 studded with three fours and six sixes.

"Shakib bhai held the innings for a while. If anyone of us had scored runs then the score would have been 160 in place of 129. Then the gameplan would have been different," Sarkar explained.

"The bowlers would have had good confidence. Nevertheless, Hope batted really well for them. They scored a lot of runs in the Powerplay. If we could have increased the dot balls then the game could have lasted for long."

After losing the first T20I in Sylhet, Bangladesh's batting consultant Neil McKenzie concluded that it was the overconfidence and the counter-aggressive approach adopted by his batsmen that caused the batting collapse.

However, Sarkar believed that wasn't the case, saying: "We were confident but I didn't see anyone being overconfident.

"We all know that they are the world champions. We are not doing too badly. We are trying be at par with them but probably there were some mistakes. We tried to charge them early. If we had handled their pace bowlers properly in the early overs, then we could have charged at them later.

"We played slowly in the middle overs as we lost early wickets. We, who bat at the top, need to utilise the Powerplay well while we need to keep our wickets intact so that we can give the last push in the end."