Did the weight of expectations bury the Tigresses?

When Australia, inarguably the greatest women's cricket team came to visit for their first-ever bilateral ODI series against Bangladesh, many expected them to win all three games.

What people didn't expect was the manner in which Bangladesh folded in all three games without putting up much of a fight.

After the 3rd ODI, which Australia won by eight wickets with 189 balls to spare, Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana Joty didn't mince her words. 

"We did not even play 10% of what we're capable of. I'm also taken aback at how the whole team played. It's totally different from how we played in the last six months."

Under Joty's leadership, Bangladesh had started to do things they had never done before and that had raised the level of expectations on the team.

The Tigresses won their first ODI and T20I series against Pakistan at home while drawing an ODI series against India at home.

They also won their first-ever ODI and T20I against South Africa in South Africa ahead of this series so that only raised the level of expectations and perhaps it's the increased level of expectations that led to their poor performances. 

"We had good preparation. But when you see players in practice with a different mentality to that in the matches, we don't have much we can do. There was no problem in terms of preparation, we just couldn't play anywhere near our capacity," Joty explained.

One of the issues for Bangladesh in sports generally has been their inability to deal with the pressure that comes from being in the spotlight.

This series was arguably the highest-profile series the Bangladesh women's team played on home soil with plenty of media and fan interest and Joty also spoke about that being one of the biggest problems for the hosts.

"I think it's mentality, because skill-wise, I don't think we had too many issues. From the first match, we were on the back foot with our batting. We couldn't create a good environment to play to our potential."

Bangladesh's current coaching setup for the women's team doesn't have a batting coach or a fielding coach and those two areas hurt the hosts throughout the series. 

They failed to score past 100 in any game and dropped catches and misfields plagued them in every game, Joty once mentioned pressure getting the best of her players.

"When a batter doesn't get runs in one game, she finds herself under more pressure to score in the next game, and that can have an adverse effect. So I'd say it's a mental thing that we need to overcome. The wicket was good to bat on in the 2nd ODI, and they batted well. Why couldn't we? All these things put us under more pressure," she expressed.

"The whole team is very disappointed. We were not batting with responsibility and throwing our wickets away," Joty added.

Perhaps Bangladesh's only positive from this series would be their bowlers, especially Nahida Akter, Rabeya Khan and Marufa Akter, who made life difficult at times for the Australian batters and Joty was quick to appreciate their efforts.

"Nahida, Rabeya, Marufa all bowled well against them so that's a positive. They struggled against our bowlers."

With the T20I series starting on the 31st of March, Joty offered the underperforming team members a stern warning, especially as Bangladesh are hosting the T20 World Cup later this year.  

"It's a wake-up call before the World Cup as it tells us we need to do better as a team. It's also high time for the players to think about their places in the team. They have to realise that they need to perform to be in the team and that their selection isn't a guarantee."

"It's up to the selectors and management to decide which players they want to give what amount of time. The selectors speak with me before each series about which players they want to pick and I give feedback there before they make a final call," Joty revealed.

Despite such a damning series defeat the 26-year-old wicketkeeper-batter has the envious task of regrouping her troops and lifting their spirits ahead of the busy and challenging year.

"We have to find ways to stay positive and boost ourselves. That's the most important thing. No one from outside can come and do that. We have a series against India coming up after the T20I series against Australia so we need to regroup and refocus quickly," she concluded.