“I take responsibility [of Bangladesh’s failure] as equally as anyone in the team,” he said at the pre-match press conference in Delhi before the clash against Sri Lanka. “We have disappointed the fans. We have disappointed ourselves as well. We didn’t play our best cricket. Nothing has changed from the first game till now. The only thing that changed is what happened between our ears. Our skills hasn’t gone anywhere. We have put ourselves down with high expectations.
“That’s the only thing I can think of. We haven’t played the way we played before the World Cup. In that sense, we have to look at the mirror to know what went wrong. Players want to perform at the biggest stage. Maybe we are trying to do too much. We have to look back and think what went wrong. It has affected many players. It can be any of those. To be honest, I don’t know at the moment.”
Bangladesh have shuffled their batting order throughout the competition but Hathurusinghe denied that it had had a negative effect on the team. Mehidy Hasan Miraz has batted in five different spots in the World Cup and that meant established batters like Shanto, Shakib and Hridoy had to bat out of their set positions.
“It is not about the batting order,” Hathurusinghe said. “What time of the innings you are coming into bat is more important than the number you bat. We haven’t [been] given any starts.
“One more batter [in the squad] could have made things complicated. When we selected this team before the World Cup, we thought they were the best performers. Their skills hasn’t gone anywhere. The only thing disturbing us is what’s going on between our ears. We haven’t played to our potential. We are not sure of what we are capable of. For some reason, we have gone into a little bit of a shell, especially batting. We need to fix this. We have to play fearless cricket.”
“He got out similarly so that’s what is wrong,” the coach said. “It wasn’t lack of trying. Any good batter can get out in the first five or ten balls. He got out first ball twice. Some of the balls he got out to – down the leg side or half-volleys – any other day you have seen he hits those for boundaries. Things have not gone right in certain ways for us.”
Hathurusinghe said that the seven months he had since being appointed Bangladesh head coach weren’t enough to prepare the team for the World Cup. He said that external factors also played a role in the preparation. “I can’t do much in seven months. I prepared the team for the World Cup. My work has to start after the World Cup. Taking the team forward is a separate thing.
“Certain things beyond my control happened in between as well. I don’t think this is the right time for me to think or discuss. At the moment my focus is to win the next game. We are doing everything right. The mood is good. Players are training. They are all hurting but they want to do well. My biggest challenge is to keep the environment stress-free from every angle so that they can perform to the best of their ability.”