Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed on Friday admitted that the off-form of the senior two campaigners affected them during their ICC T20 World Cup campaign in USA and West Indies but he also claimed that it didn’t cause any problem off the field.

Both Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah didn’t enjoy much success in the ICC T20 World Cup and their off-form had a big impact on Bangladesh’s overall performance in the global show-piece event.
Shakib, who featured for the ninth time in the tournament history, could amass only 111 runs at a strike rate of 106.73 while he took only three wickets in seven matches Bangladesh played in the tournament.

Meanwhile, Mahmudullah also had a forgetful outing as he could score only 95 runs at a strike rate of 94.05 and despite having a chance of finishing the game for Bangladesh on quite a few occasions, his bat didn’t shine as it should have been in those situations.

Bangladesh, who had a chance to qualify for the semis but killed the opportunity for their negative mindset game-play against Afghanistan in their last Super Eight match, finished the tournament by losing all three Super Eight matches after qualifying from the group stage for the first time since 2007.

“It really had an effect as two seniors weren’t in form. But it has not affected us off the field. We were together for 47 days and all were good off the field. If the important players in the team struggle with form, it is natural to have problems in that team. Hopefully, we will overcome this quickly,” Taskin told reporters after arriving at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Meanwhile, Taskin claimed that their bowlers’ performance in the tournament was a positive thing that they could have taken from the tournament while he was optimistic that the batters will come back strongly in the coming days.

Bangladesh bowlers had an outstanding outing in the World Cup with leg-spinner Rishad Hossain taking the highest 14 wickets for them while pacer trio – Tanzim Hasan Sakib (11), Taskin (eight) and Mustafizur Rahman (eight) also made their marks in tournament campaign.

“Yes, there is a positive sign. The bowling unit has done well throughout the tournament. We qualified for Super Eight. We got three wins in the Twenty20 World Cup which is the most number of wins so far. That means there are some positive things,” he said.

“However, compared to positives, the number of negatives is higher. Like everyone else, we also know that we couldn’t perform according to the expectations.
“I've been playing cricket for the Bangladesh team for the last 10 years but I’ve never seen such a long bad patch (from batters). Hopefully, they will overcome,” he concluded.