Shadman Islam finally ended his wait for a Test century on Thursday, but the Bangladesh opener believes he missed a chance to score even more runs against West Indies in Mirpur.
The left handed batter resumed the second day of the first Test on 99 not out. He reached his third Test hundred before departing for 105.
“If our top order batters can turn these scores into 150, 170 or 200, the team can reach 450 or 500,” Shadman said after the day’s play.
“We made mistakes. We will try to make our innings as big as possible when we get similar opportunities again.”
The century came after a long period in which Shadman had made several promising starts without reaching three figures.
He admitted that he had struggled to convert those innings into big scores and had been working to improve.
“I was thinking about why I kept getting out after reaching a certain score. I have worked a lot on that recently,” he said.
“I felt fitness might have been an issue, so I worked on it. I also spoke to Ashraful bhai and Salahuddin sir. They suggested a few things that could help me improve.”
Shadman also spoke about the unusual wait for his century. Bad light ended the opening day’s play with him unbeaten on 99.
However, he said the overnight wait did not affect his mindset.
“People were talking about me being on 99, but I was not thinking too much about it. My focus was on coming back the next day, scoring more runs and doing something good for the team,” he said.
The opener said he had kept his batting approach simple despite the difficult conditions in Mirpur.
“I did not think too much about the wicket. My plan was always to play the ball on its merit,” he said.
Despite his century, Bangladesh failed to build on their overnight score of 213 for three. They lost their remaining seven wickets for just 59 runs and finished their first innings on 272.
