Sehwag says his stance of calling Bangladesh an ordinary Test side is justified by India's emphatic series victory

Sehwag reiterates Bangladesh are an 'ordinary' team

Sehwag says his stance of calling Bangladesh an ordinary Test side is justified by India's emphatic series victory

India vice-captain Virender Sehwag is not the one to be cowed down by controversies. He is known to speak his mind... even at the risk of upsetting people. He did so at the start of the Test series when he did not hesitate to call Bangladesh an ordinary side.

It triggered a furore in Bangladesh's cricket fraternity with Sehwag being branded as arrogant.

He was at the receiving end of jeers and boos from the home crowd during the two Tests, but the Indian opener remains unfazed. And, after Bangladesh lost both the Tests of the two-Test rubber against India, Sehwag yesterday said his view was vindicated.

"We have won six of the seven Tests against them. This series win was an expected result. They tried their best but they are an ordinary team," Sehwag told MiD DAY yesterday.u00a0

In a pre-series press conference, Sehwag had declared that the result of the two-match Test series was a forgone conclusion, saying: "Bangladesh can surprise other teams in one-dayers but not in Test cricket. They are an ordinary side in Tests. I don't think they can beat us. It is not overconfidence but Bangladesh cannot take 20 Indian wickets, even Sri Lanka could not do it. It is difficult for Bangladesh to beat us."

Bangladesh did its cause no good by putting up a patchy performance. They lost the first Test by more than 100 runs and were crushed by 10 wickets in the second Test.

There were a few individual performances for the home team but they lacked the consistency needed to challenge the No 1 team in the world. A stark reminder of their weakness was their performance in yesterday's morning session when they collapsed after a sensational hundred by opener Tamim Iqbal. From 290 for three at one stage, Bangladesh crashed to 312 all out, leaving India to get two runs for the win.

Skipper Shakib Al Hasan's stunning confession in the press conference after yesterday's play raised serious question marks over Bangladesh's attitude. "When Shahadat (Hossain) and (Mohammad) Ashraful were batting we may have got slightly relaxed. They had made batting look easy. We were laughing and chatting in the dressing room and somewhere, at some point, we relaxed and we were not thinking about the game as much as we should have."

It was the same story at the start of the series when Bangladesh had the Indian batting on the mat. They bowled out Sehwag & Co for a measly 243 in the first innings of the first Test but batted poorly to allow India to take control of the game.u00a0 Eventually, India won by 113 runs.

On a personal front, Sehwag did not match his high standards, but he promised to make amends. "I have not got a hundred against Bangladesh so far. I tried my best in this series. I will try to get a hundred against Bangladesh in my next assignment," said Sehwag.

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