Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons remains confident in his players despite their poor batting display in the warm up match against Cricket Australia XI.
Bangladesh lost the three day match by an innings and 38 runs in Darwin on Saturday. They were bowled out for only 54 in their second innings.
The batting collapse came just five days before the first Test against Australia. Simmons admitted Bangladesh were not good enough with the bat.
“Yeah, I think the three days that we’ve had and working on things, I think they’ve been very good. I think we let ourselves down with the bat in this in this practice match, and you you look at how we got out and it wasn’t nice,” Simmons said.
Bangladesh made 263 in their first innings. Cricket Australia XI then scored 355 and took a lead of 92 runs.
Bangladesh ended the second day on 19 for two. Their situation quickly became worse on the final morning.
They added only 35 more runs and lost their remaining eight wickets.
Tanzid Hasan Tamim scored 22 from 41 balls. He was the only Bangladesh batter to reach double figures in the second innings.
Campbell Thompson caused most of the damage. The Cricket Australia XI pacer took eight wickets for 25 runs from 11 overs.
The result has raised concerns about Bangladesh’s batting before the Test series. However, Simmons believes there is still enough time to work on their problems.
“But I think that we have three days to work on what we have to do properly in the Test match. And I trust that the guys are going to put in the work over these next three days to get us where we want to be for that Test match,” Simmons said.
Bangladesh will have three days to prepare before facing Australia in Darwin on August 13.
Simmons does not want his players to spend too much time thinking about the warm up defeat. His focus has already moved to the Test.
“Disappointing match, but we move on and we look forward to the Test match.”
Bangladesh will hope for a much stronger batting display when the two match Test series begins. The second Test starts in Mackay on August 22.
