Alarm bells ringing for Nigar and Co

Alarm bells are ringing for the Bangladesh women's cricket team following the 5-0 humiliation at the hands of India at home, as the series showed how far the Nigar Sultana Joty-led side is lagging behind from leading teams in twenty20s.

The Tigresses lost the fifth and final match of the series at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Thursday by 21 runs, which was their ninth straight defeat in the format.

Although the team lost, Bangladesh actually put forth their best batting performance of the series, reaching 135-6 while chasing 157, thanks to Ritu Moni (37 off 33 balls) and Shorifa Khatun (28 off 21).

The duo formed Bangladesh's partnership in the series, a 57-run stand for the sixth wicket off 41 balls, but it wasn't enough to make up for the lack of intent shown by the top-order.

Bangladesh could only score 36 runs in the Powerplay for the loss of two wickets whereas India were 51-1 after six overs.

The slow start followed by the loss of a couple of more wickets meant the Tigresses were reeling at 52-5 at the halfway point of the innings, and were already out of the match.

Joty commended Ritu and Shorifa for their positive approach while accepting that the top-order lacked intent.

"We have had a tough time this series, but today [Thursday] the approach was better from the batters. Batting is the area we need to work on. We need to work on our approach and intent in batting," Joty said in the post-match presentation.

Before the batters disappointed, the fielding had let the Bangladesh bowlers down once again in the series.

Shorna Akter couldn't hold onto a difficult chance off Smriti Mandhana in the third over from Fariha Trisna when she was on seven.

Dayalan Hemalatha then got dropped on eight and nine in the ninth over from Rabeya Khan, with Fariha dropping a sitter on long off and then Shorifa Khatun failing to take a difficult chance at mid-off.

Mandhana went onto score 33 off 25 balls and Hemalatha top scored with 37 off 28 balls, taking the game away from Bangladesh's reach.

The thrashing against India came after the hosts were humbled 3-0 at home against Australia.

Bangladesh had put forth a much better showing against India at home last year, when they lost the T20I series 2-1 before drawing the ODI series 1-1.

That series, however, was played on low and slow tracks at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

This series was played on a better batting surfaces in Sylhet, where Bangladesh's batting got exposed.

Bangladesh will next play the Women's Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in June and then take part in the Women's T20 World Cup later in the year as hosts. After the poor series against India, Bangladesh now need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to avoid the same fate.