Need consistency in team selection - Shakib

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan has called for consistency in team selection to bring stability to the side and allow the players to develop. He drew comparisons with Zimbabwe, who have stuck with the same group of players over the last few years and recently notched up wins over India and Sri Lanka in the ODI tri-series at home.

"We have been a young side for the last ten years," Shakib told reporters in Dhaka following his team's return from the tour of England. "The players have not been given a chance to settle down. You should take a look at Zimbabwe, how they are getting results having persisted with one set of players for the past 4-5 years."

Bangladesh were beaten 2-0 in the Test series against England, with the low point being the batting debacle in Manchester where they were bowled out in a single session to lose the second Test by an innings. While acknowledging the team's fragility in batting, Shakib referred to problems with the bowling as well.

"Everyone knows that we did well in the first Test but not the second game," he said. "Not just avoid the follow-on, we were in a position to score big in the first innings but we failed. The bowling wasn't too good in the series either," he said.

The team's lone success in the series was Tamim Iqbal, who scored two stunning centuries. He, too, was critical of the rest of the team's performance. "From my point of view it was a good series. Two centuries and a half-century in English conditions is not a simple task but as far as the team is concerned, it wasn't such a good series.

"It is quite sad that the middle and lower order didn't perform and this became our problem (in England), making our performance in the two Tests inconsistent."

As for his animated celebrations after scoring a century at Lord's, Tamim confirmed he was signalling Pete, the dressing-room attendant, to put his name up on the honour's board. "Ever since bhaiya (Nafees Iqbal) told me that there is an honour's board in Lord's where the centurion's name is etched forever, I wanted to score there."