'Need to improve mentally to get rid of doubts in our heads'

Bangladesh wicketkeeper batter Nurul Hasan emphasised that the team needs to improve their mindset in order to stop coming short in crunch moments .

Bangladesh won the opening game of the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan by four wickets but not before having a batting collapse, losing six wickets for nine runs before Nurul and Rishad Hossain took them over the line.

After restricting Afghanistan to 151 for 9, Bangladesh had a flying start with both openers Tanzid Tamim and Parvez Hossain Emon powering the runs. In the chase, Bangladesh went past 100 inside 11 overs on the back of fifties by both openers.

 However, Bangladesh lost six wickets to slump from 109 for 0 to 118 for 6 in the space of 25 deliveries to slightly derail the chase.

"We have been playing cricket for a while but during crucial stages sometimes we fail because of our mindset. The wicket was the same and Emon and Tanzid gave us a good start. Maybe doubts began to appear within us a little bit as they [Rashid and Noor Ahmed] are both world-class spinners. But I think that rather than skill, we have a chance to improve mentally in this area," Nurul told reporters after the game.

"Obviously, look, Afghanistan has world-class spin bowlers, so it's very important how we do our homework against them. And obviously, a T20 match is a game of runs, so I feel that we will definitely focus on improving in the areas where we have failed, especially since we have a match again tomorrow. Because I feel this problem is not new for us; we have been struggling with it for a long time. So, the time has really come to improve in this area," he said.

"The way we collapsed, we lost many wickets in a very short amount of time. So I feel this will obviously be discussed in our team meeting, and as I said, we have been struggling with this for a long time. So obviously, everyone is talking about how to improve from this situation, and this was discussed after the Asia Cup as well. So obviously, there is a lot of room for improvement here," he added.

"Obviously, look, in T20, your top four batsmen, the top order, are very important. I feel that they have been playing very well for the last few days, and if I may say so, they also gave some good starts in the Asia Cup. But cricket is ultimately a team game. I feel that the day you do well in bowling, batting, and fielding-in everything-that is the day you will have a better chance of winning the match," he concluded.

Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan in the second T20I today (October 3).