Rabeya Khan, the Bangladeshi all-rounder, attributed her team's 44-run loss to India in the opening game of the five-match T20I series at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Sunday to the failure of their top-order batting.

In pursuit of a target of 146 runs, Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana Joty scored 51 off 48 balls, but she didn't receive any support from the other end. Consequently, the hosts could only muster 101 for 8 within their allocated overs.

"The bowlers have been doing their job for the last six to seven months but unfortunately the top order... If a couple of them could've stayed for a while, we could have ended the game on a better note or at least taken it close," Rabeya told reporters following the game at Sylhet.

Rabeya continues, "Joty (Nigar) Apu is a responsible batter and in these kinds of situations, she plays till the end but we are unable to give her support and that is the reason we are in this situation."

"If the top-order batter is scoring runs, it gets easy for other batters to score runs. Joty Apu is getting runs every day but there is no partnership from the top and that is why we are suffering."The target was chaseable but unfortunately we could not do it. The plan was to play one ball at a time, and there would be boundary-scoring opportunities. If we could punish the bad balls, we should have chased down the score," she added.