Shakib makes U-turn on previous comment, says every team ‘very much equal’ in T20Is

Earlier this month ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said playing Zimbabwe and the West Indies leading up to the T20 World Cup wouldn't be "ideal" preparation for Bangladesh. But after being part of three defeats - one against Zimbabwe and two against the USA - Shakib said every team is very much equal in T20 cricket. 

"Look, if I consider playing against Zimbabwe and the United States for preparing for the World Cup, I think it will be a very wrong assumption. The World Cup is a different scenario; the more pressure we can handle, the better chance we have," Shakib told reporters at a function in Dhaka on 5 May.

Shakib, on Thursday, threatened to take the game away from the USA with the bat. At one stage, Bangladesh required 21 off just 19 with five wickets in hand and it should have been a walk in the park for the visitors. 

But the death bowling of Ali Khan and Saurabh Netravalkar was too good for them as Bangladesh succumbed to their 100th T20I defeat.

Shakib, after the match, said the series loss might be a wake-up call for Bangladesh. 

"Certainly it is disappointing and we didn't expect it but we must give credit to the US team for the way they have played," Shakib said. "I think no one expected that we will lose two games. Any match you lose as a team is disappointing and you don't want to lose a game and obviously it is very disappointing. But having said that we have to play the World Cup and this series might be a wake-up call for us as we haven't played the way we want to play.

"It's a team game and everyone has to take the responsibility - you win as a team and you lose as a team. I don't want to blame any particular person or any particular department. It's just that T20 is such a format you have to play very good cricket in all three departments to win against any team. There are no small or big teams in T20 cricket and that's why it is more exciting than any other format. And the proof of that is in the last two games the way US played." 

After the historic victory in the first T20I, USA's hero Harmeet Singh suggested that Bangladesh might have taken them lightly. But Shakib said that was not the case.

"I don't think we took them lightly. In the first game maybe we couldn't do what we wanted to do and in the second game exactly the same thing happened - we couldn't execute the plans that we were supposed to do on the ground," he stated.

Shakib gave the examples of many recent unlikely results in T20Is to reinforce his point.

"In T20 every team is very much equal. I have seen the game between West Indies A and Nepal and they really played well and you are seeing games between Ireland and Netherlands and they are playing very close matches. Pakistan lost to Ireland and in T20 it is anybody's game."

"It is on the day who performs better, and so you cannot take anything lightly in T20 cricket because one or two overs can change the momentum of the game and completely change the scenario of the game. That's why you are always up for the challenges and you cannot take anything lightly or anything for granted," he said.