Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal made no excuses for the team’s lackluster performance against West Indies in the first Test in Antigua. Bangladesh collapsed to 43 runs in the first innings as some of their most experienced batters failed to decipher Kemar Roach, who bagged a fifer. The hapless side were outclassed by the hosts in all departments.

“We are shocked like everyone else as we know we are capable of performing better than what we did [in the opening game],” Tamim was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. “We are not trying to make any excuses as we are aware that our mistakes were responsible for our downfall. The way we performed certainly cannot be acceptable.”

The southpaw did reach the milestone of 4,000 Test runs during the second innings of that match but a 13-run knock from him made a little difference to the heavy defeat that was already coming their way.

Bangladesh totaled 144 in the second innings and were defeated by the Caribbean side. They haven’t won a Test match since registering their first ever victory over Australia in August last year.

Tamim stressed on the mental aspect of the game and urged his side to build confidence in order to put up better performances. According to him, Nurul Hasan’s valiant effort in the second innings is testament to Bangladeshi batsmens ability to rise to pressure situations.

“For us the most important thing is to have faith on our abilities and back ourselves,” said Tamim. “We must trust our own ability and believe that we can score big runs in difficult conditions. We have to believe that we are better than our opponent, both individually and team-wise.”