After the failure of the batting unit in two consecutive matches against Australia and India in the Super Eight of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, Shakib Al Hasan is concerned about the skill and strength of the cricketers in batting. He also sees a lack of freedom and confidence among batters.

Bangladesh lost to India by 50 runs on Saturday (22nd June) in Antigua. India posted a massive 196 on the board earlier on. Hardik Pandya's breezy fifty, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dube and Virat Kohli's mid 30's helped them get to this huge total. For Bangladesh, Tanzim Hasan Sakib bowled an exceptional spell but other bowlers leaked away too many runs on the decent surface in Antigua. In reply, India were excellent with the ball and Jasprit Bumrah once again stood tall, with Kuldeep Yadav showed his masterful bowling display to beat Bangladesh.

Bangladesh opted to bowl earlier with the aim of restricting India to 170 runs. However, in response to 196 runs, they could not even score 150 runs. This time Shakib's goal is to beat Afghanistan on June 24.

Stating that the Bangladesh team could not do the basic tasks with the bat, Shakib said, “When you’re playing against team like Australia and India, you have to bring you’re ‘A’ game. We’re bit of lackings in those skill and strength areas. Also I’d say we couldn’t do the basic thing longer enough to be able to create any sort of pressure and throughout this World Cup, we as a batting unit, I don’t think we did justify to ourselves. I think we had the potential to score big runs in the last two games we played here was a very good wicket probably 175-185 is par score, we were well short of that against Australia. Today I think India scored 20 runs more but the intent we had to show from the start of the innings, I don’t think it was there. So there are few areas we can point finger but these two games will teach us so many things and hopefully we can take those things and bring it to the next game so that we can get a win before we leave Caribbean.”

“We were short of runs as a batting unit. The freedom we needed, the confidence we needed, I don’t think it was there. One can see it who understands the game. And that’s the area I think we are lacking throughout this World Cup.”