Playing India in India is the toughest assignment: Hathurusingha
Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha admitted that the gulf in skill and quality between his side and India led to the crushing seven-wicket defeat in the second and final Test at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur.
The visitors were on the receiving end of some high-voltage batting onslaught as India managed to rout their opposition in the contest that virtually turned into a three-day game after the second and third day was washed out. Consequently, India batted for a total of 52 overs (312 deliveries) - 38 overs less than what is allotted for a day's play - to churn out a result in their favour.
"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 India team to come up with that approach, and make a match of it. We actually didn't react quick enough (to India's approach)," Hathurusingha told reporters in the post-match press conference on Tuesday.
"Batting is disappointing in this series. 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."
Najmul Hossain Shanto's side could never find a foothold in the match owing to some high-quality bowling by the India attack but at the same time moments of astounding mediocrity by the batters. Bangladesh got bundled out for 233 and then 146, giving India a meagre 95-run target to take the series 2-0 after the visitors were thumped with a 280-run loss in the first Test in Chennai.
"I am sure they are disappointed at some of the dismissals and the decision-making. What stands out for me is that we lost a wicket when there's been a bowling change. We didn't give ourselves enough time to get used to the new bowler," Hathurusingha said.
"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. 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."
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