Having taken Bangladesh historically over the line for a maiden T20I win over India in Delhi on Sunday (November 3), veteran Mushfiqur Rahim hoped the result would bring back smiles amid all cricket lovers back home. This has been a period of worrying instability within Bangladesh cricket with the controversial players' strike following a two-year ban on national pride Shakib Al Hasan for failing to report corrupt approaches. 

"The last two-three weeks has been the toughest situation that I have faced in my 15-year cricketing career," Mushfiqur said at the post-match press conference after scoring an unbeaten 60 in Bangladesh's seven-wicket win. "I said to the journalists before leaving Bangladesh that the only way to return to the right track would be with a couple of wins in India. It will bring back smiles and calmness to the team and the nation."

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Mushfiqur further said head coach Russell Domingo has played a nice calming influence despite all the chaos around the national side. "We came here as underdogs," he said. "I thank our head coach because of the situation we have faced in the last three weeks."

"To come back from that, especially giving the youngsters the freedom and giving them confidence; whether you give 20 runs in an over or get out first ball, you are still a member of this team."

"We have been giving this message to the rest of the team. I want them to take eight or ten years to reach what I have reached in 15 years."

Despite the equation more a less comfortable towards the end, there were the ghosts of Bengalore to exorcise from the 2016 T20 World Cup against India. And Mushfiqur confirmed there was a conscious effort to not let the intensity drop at any time.

"The biggest thing is people don't remember winning from these situations for too long," he said. "But if we lost this game, they would remember it for a long time. We were in a better position two overs before the end in that [Bengaluru] game."

"This was a tougher proposition on this wicket where scoring so much in the last two overs was going to be tough. I didn't find it easy to find boundaries on this wicket."

"We have had a lot of close games against India, so we promised ourselves that the next time we go into such a phase of the game, we don't want to lose," Mushfiqur added.

"We have learned a lot from those last two games against India that went into the last over, so we discussed on how we can overcome those moments. I was telling Riyad bhai that let's win in singles and doubles rather than going for big hits."

The second T20I will be played in Rajkot on November 7. 

(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)