“The confidence falters when three players from your best XI are missing,” Tamim said after the match. “But the boys didn’t allow the team to miss them. Everyone was hungry to win. We wanted to take something from the tour, particularly after the T20 series. It is not about me, but the other fifteen. I think we got this result due to the players’ desire.
“Every win is special for us, regardless of whether we are playing Australia, England, New Zealand or Zimbabwe. We have to work hard to get to centuries or five-wicket hauls. We should celebrate the wins, because at this level, nobody gifts you anything. You have to fight for everything.”
“These are very difficult wickets,” Tamim said. “Worse than Mirpur. You don’t know which delivery will get you out on these wickets. We had scores of 149 and 108, so I don’t want to judge anyone on these wickets.
“We knew that we needed one more spinner when we looked at the pitch yesterday [Tuesday]. We also thought it might be worth having an extra batsman. You can lose back-to-back wickets on this wicket. The ball spins too much. It was a totally tactical decision. Taskin was very unfortunate to miss out; he had been bowling well.”
“Opening with [Najmul Hossain] Shanto was a brilliant call by Litton,” Tamim revealed. “Towards the end of the West Indies innings, he told me how about I go out to open with Shanto. I thought he made a wonderful call. It would have been really difficult for right-handers in the middle.
“Shanto and I thought that we can do without scoring runs. When the left-arm spinners finish all their overs, they still have to bowl 30 overs. We had a 48-run partnership but here it is worth a 100-run stand.”
Now the captain believes it is the turn of those in the bench to get their opportunities. It would mean Anamul Haque, Ebadot Hossain and Taskin getting to replace one batter and possibly the pace bowlers Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam.
“The most important thing is to test our bench strength,” Tamim said. “We don’t do it often in the Bangladesh team. You can’t do that when points are involved but being 2-0 up in this series allows us to see those who have been traveling with us for many months.
“I think it is completely fine for me to miss a match. If we don’t test our bench strength now, then when will we do it?”