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Bangladesh T20 skipper Shakib Al Hasan said that they weren't able to wade through a string of losses and eventually, the negative vibe spread through the set-up during the just-concluded tour of South Africa.
Bangladesh lost the last T20I game in Potchefstroom by 83 runs as the hosts earned their maiden clean-sweep across formats that comprised two Tests as well as three ODIs and two T20Is.
Shakib observed that after they were beaten in the Test series, the team's confidence began to slide downwards and it affected their performance in the shorter versions of the game.
"I think a big reason [for the performance] was that we didn't do well in Tests, and when the ODIs came around that mood lingered into that format," noted Shakib.
"Similarly, when we did not do well in the ODIs, it lingered into the T20s. If we had done well in Tests, then we could have done even better in ODIs, and even better thereafter in the T20s," he added.
"That's how these things work. If you are in the dressing room, you can tell from the atmosphere. The mentality is different in a winning dressing room; everyone talks about winning. In a losing dressing room, people talk about personal things, and unwittingly negative things come in. Atmosphere is important. More than one or two people performing, it is important that the team performs," he said.
All through the tour, Bangladesh's batsman largely struggled against the home side's pace bowlers. In addition to it, the bowlers weren't able to string together incisive spells.
Apart from Mushfiqur Rahim's century in the opening ODI, they struggled to come up with fine individual performances that could have helped the team put up a spirited show against their fancied opponents.
"The records will show that no team has performed well in away series in the last three or four years. But we were not able to compete in this series, which is frustrating," noted Shakib.
"We played well in the last 2-3 years which is why we expected to fight here. But unfortunately we were not able to get out from the losing streak," he said. Shakib also added that he was against making wholesale changes and instead, the Asian country should look to improve in all aspects of the game. Bangladesh will next play Sri Lanka at home.
"We all know what our ability is, and none of us could perform up to that. So in that regard I am sure that everyone - starting with the BCB, the coaching staff and us players - will work hard to overcome it, which is important if we want to move forward," he said.
"People will have personal opinions but I won't say that we have to start thinking about sea changes after just one series. It is a little normal that results like this will happen on overseas tours. Maybe it was expected that we would lose, but we did not expect to play the cricket we did to lose the way we did," he added.
(CRICBUZZ)
