Mahmudullah has history in performing well at ICC events, he made back-to-back hundreds in the 2015 ODI World Cup and a hundred when Bangladesh beat New Zealand in the 2017 Champions Trophy. But here, he missed their first match with injury and self-destructed in the second.
“Even the shot selection we’ve seen today was very disappointing,” Jaffer said. “Mushfiq [Mushfiqur] playing that shot, Mahmudullah playing that wild shot. And this is a must-win game. You want them to step up in these kinds of games and make themselves count. So that’s been the story in the ICC events, unfortunately.”
Jaffer also felt that Bangladesh were at least “50 to 60 runs short” on a Rawalpindi surface which wasn’t offering much help for the bowlers.
“They could have easily put 300-plus on that pitch,” he said. “They have got themselves to blame. It is too much to ask from the bowling unit to get a team New Zealand all out for below 240.”
“I like the look of their bowling attack,” Bond said. “They have got the heat, they have got the left-armer [Mustafizur Rahman] which New Zealand and a team like England doesn’t have. The spinners are good.
“Also the fine margins… they missed chances. If you miss those run-out chances or those dropped catches, they are the difference between winning or losing a game. If they had taken those chances, this game could have been completely different. There is a lot to work with with their bowling attack. I think their batting in the end was the problem.”
Bond, who coaches extensively in the franchise T20 circuit, also felt that any coach would “feel a bit grumpy” after the kind of performance Bangladesh put in as their Champions Trophy 2025 journey came to an end.
“I think it’s the natural inclination as a coach to feel that way,” Bond said. “If you start talking about what you shouldn’t do and let emotion pour out as a coach, it’s a dangerous place to go. So you’re still trying to create an environment where you want guys to come out and play positively, you want them to be really clear about how you’re going to play.
“And at the end of the day, if they go out and try to execute their game plans and play the way that you want and they lose, then that’s okay. If they don’t, then it makes it very difficult. So that’s what you’re looking for as a player.
“You want, ‘this is how the coach wants me to play my role in the team. If I go and do that to the best of my ability, then it’s okay.’ You know, some days it’s not going to work and we’re not a fly on the wall in the Bangladesh camp, so we don’t know what those conversations are and it’s difficult to make judgments on that stuff.”