Sports Desk:

Bangladesh opener Soumya Sarkar on Monday refused to blame fatigue for their debacle in the ongoing three-match one-day international series against Sri Lanka.

The Tigers lost the opening two matches of the series to suffer their first series defeat against Sri Lanka since 2007 and are now facing the humiliation of a clean sweep loss in Wednesday’s final match.

The back-to-back defeat created an uproar with many fans blaming the fatigue of the players after the Ireland tour in May and gruelling World Cup in June-July.

Soumya, who was part of the squad both in Ireland and World Cup, said it was more of their tactical fault than the tired legs that caused the embarrassing defeats in Ireland.

‘I don’t know if anyone is tired individually. But when I trained with the team I didn’t notice anyone feeling tired,’ Soumya told reporters in Colombo.

‘We have the hungriness to perform well. It was because we couldn’t perform to the expectations in the World Cup,’ he said.

Bangladesh team returned home on July 7 after they got eliminated from the league-stage and after nearly three-week break they embark on Sri Lanka in phases on July 21.

The Tigers are not the only side to return to international on the same month after the World Cup as newly crowned world champions England hosted Ireland for lone Test face-off at Lord’s last week and they are now preparing for a long Ashes campaign against Australia, starting on August 1.

Semi-finalists India will also face West Indies in a full phase series from next month.

Soumya, who made just 26 runs in two matches, did not want live on the past and they would not focus to finish the series on a high with a win in the final game.

‘It’s true that we have lost the series. Now our focus is in the last match. We will try to make a comeback and do well in that match,’ he added.

‘We were ready to play a good series in here. We had good preparation to play a good series. But we lost the series by conceding defeats in first two matches. All are very much worried for it.

‘We have talked to all about how to do well in the series. We will try to comeback strongly in the last match,’ he added.