Harare, Aug 4 (IANS): Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud termed the side's 2-1 loss to Zimbabwe in the recently-concluded three-match T20I series a "disgrace". He added that players played as if they were trying to seal their spots in the team.

Mahumd's words come after Zimbabwe won their first-ever T20I series against Bangladesh, winning by 10 runs in the series-decider at Harare on Tuesday. Bangladesh lost the first match of the series by 17 runs before hitting back with a seven-wicket victory in the second game. But they failed to clinch the series in the decider match.

"I am very disappointed, I didn't expect to lose to Zimbabwe. We are a better team than them. I would call it a disgrace. I won't give any excuses. We should have won the T20I series. Losing was quite unusual."

"When we needed 10 or 12 runs an over, we were getting six or seven every over. Nobody even tried to hit a six. Everyone was playing for ones and twos. What was that? They batted like trying to protect their place, make enough runs so that they don't lose their place," Mahmud was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

T20I has been a format where Bangladesh have been far away from their best self. Since last year's T20 World Cup in Oman and the UAE, Bangladesh have won only two of their last 11 T20I matches. Mahmud further expressed displeasure over none of the Bangladesh batters try to be aggressive. For Zimbabwe, Ryal Burl and Luke Jongwe looked to hit boundaries despite Zimbabwe losing their first six wickets.

"When you are chasing 157, you can't win a game by batting at 90 or 110 strike-rate. Someone had to go after the bowling. Look at their (Burl and Jongwe) strike-rate. They changed the complexion of the game. You can't expect Litton Das to score every day. Whether it was Afif or Shanto, I didn't see anyone batting aggressively. If you can't pull a short ball for six, that's going to be a problem."

Mahmud signed off by saying that the T20I squad contained the best players in the format from the country, and admitted to having not much competition for places in the T20I side in the first place.

"Those selected have all performed well in domestic cricket, including Munim Shahriar and Parvez (Hossain Emon). If your best players don't perform, there's nothing you can do. The cricketers can tell you what they have to do. They have been getting opportunities for quite some time now. There's not a lot of competition for places, so they should play with an open heart. I haven't seen them playing that way."

Bangladesh will next take on Zimbabwe in a three-match ODI series in Harare on August 5, 7 and 10 respectively.