Here is daily star's take on the matter -
Shakib loses the plot
Is there any scope for a professional cricketer to relax at any stage of a match? You will get interesting answers if you take the words of Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, who came up with self-contradictory statements in almost every question during the post-match briefing after his team's surprising surrender on the fourth morning of the second Test against India at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
After the press conference it was hard for many to believe whether Shakib was the same man who has always been a portrait of confidence even at the age of only 22. Did one bad defeat make him fickle? At one point he said that he was not sure about the reasons behind the sudden collapse, then again he came up with some explanations, though funny.
Believe it or not, according to the young skipper, his batsmen were in a relaxed mood in the dressing room when Mohammad Ashraful and night-watchman Shahadat Hossain were batting and that actually caused the dramatic collapse.
And after the debacle the realisation was that the Tigers were not mentally strong enough to cope with the pressure.
"We were laughing in the dressing room when the two overnight batsmen were batting because we thought that the wicket was very easy to bat on. Every one of us was thinking of going out in the middle and start whacking the ball," was the surprise answer from the Bangladesh captain, who started his innings with a six before mistiming a sweep against left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha to reach the safe hands of Gautam Gambhir at square leg.
Then wasn't there someone in the team management, or particularly the coach, who could warn them? Shakib now took a U-turn by saying that: "Zaheer [Khan] bowled really well and got the reverse swing to cause the damage. We were also nervous, as most of the top-order batsmen except Tamim were not in good touch."
And it was also his observation: "The wicket was very good to bat on, but we could not apply ourselves properly. Our game plan was not correct."
"Actually our mind-set was wrong. And
what I believe is that we are not mentally strong enough to cope with this kind of situation," he also added.
India's master batsman Sachin Tendulkar visited the Bangladesh dressing room after the presentation ceremony to give some advice, but no advice will be enough if the problem lies in your basics.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=123796