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Allrounder says they were excited at playing ‘a bigger team – normally those which don’t visit our country that often’
“There is always a motivation when you play the bigger teams – normally those which don’t visit our country that often,” Shakib said in an interaction with the media on Monday. “Also, we had a really good series in Zimbabwe and so everyone was pretty motivated to do well in this series as well. We had never won a series against Australia, and so this was our chance. Hence, we wanted to deliver well as a unit, which is what happened.”
“Any such achievement obviously feels good,” Shakib said. “This kind of personal achievement inspires you to do well for your side… I am really happy, and I feel I will be able to contribute for many more days and would be striving for that.”
Shakib too said batting was always a challenge, and added that performances in such conditions should not be judged too harshly.
“We could have perhaps scored 10 or 15 more runs in every match, since we were in situations where doing it was possible,” he said. “But the wickets were so difficult [to bat on] that it was always tough for a new batsman [to play]. So it would be unfair to judge someone on the basis of just one series because the conditions were really tough for the batsmen.”
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo