Bangladesh women’s national team skipper Nigar Sultana said on Wednesday that their humiliating defeat in the series concluding third ODI match against Australia women’s national team is a warning sign for them ahead of the forthcoming ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024.

Australia completed a clean sweep in three-match ODI series, crushing the hosts by eight-wicket in the final match at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday.

Kim Garth claimed 3-11 from seven overs to lead the side to skittle the home side out for just 89 in 26.2, a small total that Australia eased past in 18.3 overs with 93-2.

Bangladesh were riding high with their recent success against India, Pakistan and South Africa, but they failed to reach 100-run for the third consecutive time in this home series against Australia.

The hosts earlier lost the first match by 118-run after being bowled out for 95 runs and were dismissed for just 97 runs in the second game to suffer a six-wicket defeat.

“I am totally surprised because we have not played this kind of cricket in the last six months. You can accept mistakes in one or two areas but the whole team played differently that put us on the back foot. We could not perform 10 percent close to our ability,” the Bangladesh skipper said after their disappointing performance in Mirpur on this day.

“Look when you will fail and do mistake… once you are doing well lot of things are not noticed and when you will do mistake at that time you will feel that I am having problem here and there and we need to do better in certain areas and that is good for us because this is warning sign ahead of the World Cup (T20) and we cannot go in this way and we have to move forward in a better war otherwise we will have the same result against big team,” she said.

“It is high time for our players to think that if we want to be in the team we need to perform,” she said, adding that she felt they could not recover psychologically after losing the opening game against Australia. 

“When we got out below 100 runs in the opening game from that point everyone was thinking that it would be tough for us and it got into our brain. Otherwise in the second game the wicket was good and if they can bat why we failed in that game,” she said.

“I think it’s a mental thing because I don’t feel that we have a problem in skill because if that was the case we could not win earlier. I don’t know why everyone got into the back foot from the opening game and we could not recover from that point. I would say it is a psychological thing,” she added.

“At times negative things come into our mind and when the start is not good at that point, I feel it is not working for me and when someone fails in one or two games so could make a comeback and so failed to do so,” she further added.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh are slated to take on Australia in a three-match T20I series between 31 March to 4 April at the same venue.