We need to prepare better mentally ahead of 2020 season, admits Mominul Haque

Kolkata: Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque said here on Sunday that his team needed to work on its mental strength ahead of the long Test season next year.

In the first ever day-night Test in India, Bangladesh were shot out for 106 in the first innings while India declared on 347/9 with a lead of 241 runs. In their second essay, the hapless tourists were reduced to 14/3 and eventually lost by an innings and 46 runs in the first session of the third day's play. They had lost the first Test by an innings and 130 runs in Indore.

India's pace trio of Ishant Sharma (9 wickets), Umesh Yadav (8) and Mohammed Shami (2) grabbed all the 19 Bangladeshi wickets to fall in the match as India completed a 2-0 series whitewash at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.

"As a team we have not been able to play well, be it batting or bowling. There are a lot of areas to improve. If we improve, we can give a good account of ourselves next year. We have about 10 Tests lined up in 2020," Mominul said at the post-match press conference.

"You must be aware that we don't play Tests frequently. We will play about 10 Tests next year, and hopefully we will put up a much improved show.

"We all need to prepare better mentally. Hope we will become mentally stronger and improve day by day. But we will need some time. The message to our young batsmen is to learn well from this series... Results will come in the future," the newly appointed Bangladesh captain said.

Asked if Bangladesh Cricket Board's decision to play pink ball Test without any preparation was a good one, Mominul said they had to play Day-Night Test someday, therefore it was not a problem.

"We had to play today or tomorrow, so it's fine. We may have failed, but we had to start somewhere," he said.

Mominul was asked to lead the side after regular skipper Shakib-Al Hasan was suspended by the ICC just before the India tour, while Bangladesh's all-time leading run-getter Tamim Iqbal also skipped the series due to personal reasons.

Mominul had a woeful run with the bat in the series with scores of 37 and 7 at Indore, while he was dismissed for a duck in each inning of the Kolkata Test.

"I don't think much about my individual performance. I think about the team and it was disappointing the way we played. Maybe I'm struggling, but I will improve soon," he said.

"Everyone missed him (Tamim), but it was also a big opportunity for us and we failed to make it count," Mominul added.

Asked about his assessment of the pink ball, he said: "Batting is difficult with the new ball. It becomes easy after the dew starts setting in."