'Still a long way to go' - Taskin encouraged by steps towards rediscovering rhythm

Bangladesh's pace spearhead Taskin Ahmed said his team was caught off guard by the dew in Sylhet's hot weather. The hosts won the opener against Netherlands by eight wickets, built on Taskin's four-wicket burst and a breezy half-century from Litton Kumar Das.

However, dew became a factor when legspinner Rishad Hossain struggled to grip the ball. That forced Litton to rethink his plans, bringing on offspinner Saif Hassan after just two overs. The move paid off as Saif claimed two crucial wickets.

"Honestly, when we play in the BPL during winter, there's usually some dew and it's quite significant but I didn't expect so much dew in the hot weather," Taskin told reporters after the game. "However, that's beyond our control and we can't control the weather and so we just have to adjust to it," he said.

Taskin also lauded Saif for his all-round impact. Promoted to No. 4 ahead of Towhid Hridoy, Saif smashed an unbeaten 36 off 19 balls to go with his two wickets.

"Saif made a good contribution. He took two wickets with the ball and finished strongly with the bat as well," said Taskin.

"Actually, in every match, every series, we come out to play to win. The improvement we're focusing on is to avoid repeating past mistakes. That's why everyone is training hard off the field. We are focusing training on the specific areas that each player needs to improve. It's not just routine training," he added.

Taskin himself is working back into rhythm after an Achilles injury sustained during the ICC Champions Trophy sidelined him for several months. He admitted he struggled on the Sri Lanka tour upon his return but feels progress is coming.

"Alhamdulillah, getting better (rhythm-wise). I returned with the Sri Lanka series after injury but struggled a bit there (with my rhythm) but I'm getting better," said Taskin.

"I've worked really hard over the past few weeks in training and still a long way to go and I'm following the process. As a fast bowler, I definitely want to bowl as fast as I can. But it's important to bowl according to the situation. I bowled at the beginning, in the middle and then at the death.

"I tried to bowl how the situation demanded. I could execute well. In T20Is, even good deliveries can go for a boundary. But tonight, it went well overall and could execute the variations properly," he noted.

Meanwhile, Netherlands head coach Ryan Cook praised Bangladesh's chase, highlighting their authority with the bat.

"I thought they struck the ball really well with clean execution. As soon as our bowlers missed, they were on it. There were some excellent shots both on the ground and in the air," said Cook.

"Also, some really smart strike rotation-especially from Litton, who played an extraordinary innings. They batted really well. Obviously, we would like to bowl a bit better, but their execution was excellent," he added.