There has been harsh criticism for some days regarding captain Najmul Hossain Shanto's statement - the team gave up after losing 3 wickets against Afghanistan in their last match of the Super Eight in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Bangladesh needed to win within 12.1 overs to qualify for the semi-final. But this time, pacer Taskin Ahmed gives an explanation about that statement.

Despite losing two games to India and Australia, Bangladesh's last Super Eight match provided an opportunity to get to the final four. History would have been created if they had scored 116 runs in 12.1 overs (73 balls). But after scoring good runs in the first 3 overs, Bangladesh’s intent started to fade up in the match and eventually, they didn’t try and even lost the match by 8 runs (DLS method).

Taskin talks about the gameplan in that match after returning to home. “Good never ends. Be it good or bad. Yes, it could have been much better. Especially in the last match, we were all a bit disappointed. We tried to win first, within 12 overs. Later when we realized that it was not possible to finish in 12 overs, then everyone tried to play normally. Still we couldn’t win the match,” Taskin said.

"What happened in the tournament, we're all sad about that, maybe even the fans are disappointed. Some matches we were supposed to win, but we didn't. Especially the last match we all planned to win in 12.1 overs. We started the game with that intent. At one stage when we realized that it was not possible within 12 overs, the plan was to try to win naturally. Then we couldn't even do that even after trying.”

However, Taskin admits that there are more negatives than positives in the T20 World Cup. “Yes, there are positives. The bowling department did well throughout the tournament. We reached the Super Eight. First of all, we got three wins in T20 World Cup this time which means there are positive aspects. But the number of negatives is a bit more. Like everyone else, we are a little disappointed. Not as good as expected.”

Taskin is pleased to see future stars emerging especially in bowling, “Tanzim Sakib, Rishad were among the highest wicket-takers, in the top five. Rishad is still there. All in all, they did well. It is very positive that future stars will emerge from Bangladesh. It also shows the world that we all have different abilities.”

Rishad is the third highest wicket-taker in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 till now with 14 wickets. Tanzim Sakib also played well. He got 11 wickets.