Shanto has no excuses for SL pounding

Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto didn't give any excuse for his team's crushing defeat against Sri Lanka in the first Test in Sylhet, but still believed that Bangladesh as a team is improving in Tests at a slow but gradual pace.

"Whatever the margin, a loss is a loss. In both innings, the top-order didn't score runs. Not just us, both team's top-order struggled. But we don't want to use that as an excuse. We need to work on how we can improve from here," Shanto said after his side lost the first Test by 328 runs in the second session on Day 4.

The skipper had led the Tigers to their maiden Test win at home over New Zealand in last year's December at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium. But against Sri Lanka, they couldn't put up any fight.

Even after the humiliating defeat, Shanto was adamant that the Tigers have gotten better in the red-ball format but admitted that the rate of improvement is really slow.

"After the New Zealand match, we were hearing that we have improved a lot, we have done well a lot of things have changed for the better. Even many members of the media had said so. So, we can't say that there has been no change. You can say that things haven't changed as much as it should've. We need to improve much more from now on."