Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal admitted that they should have won the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe, but felt it was a bit unfair to be criticized heavily for the losses.

On Wednesday, July 10, Bangladesh crushed Zimbabwe by 105 runs to win the third and final ODI, but the touring side ended up losing the series as the hosts had already won the first two ODI matches.

Well, Zimbabwe won both the ODI and T20I series with a 2-1 margin against Bangladesh, and the Tigers were targeted for losing to lower teams in the rankings, but Tamim credited the hosts for playing brilliant cricket in the series and said that people wouldn’t have been overly critical if they lost the matches to India or Australia.

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Tamim Iqbal said after the match: “When we lose only then talks of improvement come up. No doubt that we should have won the series, we can’t give any excuses. We didn’t play to our potential and Zimbabwe was the better team and the credit goes to them.”

The 33-year-old added, “Sometimes talks on improvement seem a little monotonous, we should do this, we should do that. Today, I will say something that you may or may not like. Had we lost to India, Australia or any other top-ranked team, there wouldn’t have been so many questions. Had Virat Kohli or Steve Smith played a decent knock, we would have accepted that we couldn’t have done anything.”

He concluded, “The series proves that we need to improve even in ODI cricket. Defeat against India or Australia wouldn’t have been questioned. I am not demeaning Zimbabwe by any means as they really played well. From my side I can say, we need to work on a lot of aspects.”

(India Today inputs)