Bangladesh coach lauds India’s Kanpur approach but rues batting woes

The Tigers coach praised the Indian team's aggressive approach to secure a result in the rain-affected game after play resumed on day four, but expressed disappointment in his team's performance.

"The defeat is really hurting us in terms of our performance. (India's approach) was really not seen before. All credit to Rohit and the Indian team for coming up with that approach, and making a match of it. We actually didn't react quick enough (to India's approach)."

A batting collapse on the final day saw Bangladesh fall to a seven-wicket defeat in a match that lasted just 173.2 overs, making it the fourth-shortest Test in history. Bangladesh, who had hoped to bat through the fifth day to salvage a draw, could only survive one session. Within 21 minutes, skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shadman Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, and Litton Das succumbed to the relentless Indian attack.

"Batting was disappointing in this series," Hathurusingha said. “Some players did well in the last series. We have not been performing to our potential in the last few series. One reason for the batting was the quality of the opposition. The skill level in display in this series was very high.

“We are taking a lot of learnings from this. This is the best team. Playing India in India is the toughest assignment. We know how much we need to improve.”

Bangladesh entered the series on the back of a historic tour of Pakistan, where they won both matches to secure a whitewash against the hosts, but Hathurusingha was well aware that his team would face a much tougher challenge in India.

"We came here after beating Pakistan but we knew that the challenges will be steep in India. It won't be a good thing if I attach our feeling into our performance," he said.

“We didn't get too high on ourselves for winning in Pakistan, so we shouldn't go down too much after this result. We knew what we did well to win in Pakistan and we know what we couldn't do here to compete with these guys.”

The head coach acknowledged that they were outplayed in the series and emphasised the need to improve their skill set to compete with the stronger teams.

"I think we were completely outplayed in this series. I saw the difference in skill levels, so we need to improve. Having said that, we didn't play to our best potential. We are disappointed with it. There's no point putting pressure on every individual player and their every decision in the middle, if we are not getting the right support."