Room for improvement

Urooj Mumtaz

Four matches, four defeats is not exactly how I imagined our Asia Cup campaign would begin. Quite simply, our batting, bowling and fielding hasn't been up to the levels that I would expect considering the ability of players in our team.

We always knew that it would be a challenge to take on the likes of India and Sri Lanka, who are two of the best sides in the world, but we shouldn't really being losing to Bangladesh. However, we have been really impressed with how they have taken the playing at this level and they should be congratulated on the impact that they have on this tournament in their inaugural appearance.

The main positive to take from the event so far was our performance against Sri Lanka in our return match. In all honesty, we probably should have won but once again our batting let us down. We know that we need to eliminate this habit of losing wickets in quick succession if we are to have an impact at the ICC Women's World Cup next year.

One of the things I have taken away from this tournament is that often games can be turned by big performances by two or three players, but unfortunately we haven't been producing enough of these during the event.

From a personal perspective I was determined to have an impact in our game against Sri Lanka and was really pleased with my four wickets and a half-century, although I would obviously have preferred it if we had won. It was a wonderful feeling to score my first ODI fifty for my country, although I wish I could have gone on to a bigger score and guided my side to victory.

Although confidence isn't as high as it could be, the team is hoping to end our campaign on a positive and hopefully gain revenge on Bangladesh.

The experience gained from playing a series of one-day matches at international level has been extremely beneficial and we are only going to get better if we keep playing international cricket on a more regular basis.

While it is important to practice hard, improve our technique and maintain our high levels of fitness, there is nothing quite like match practice and time in the middle to improve our game.

Only then, when you are in match-day situation, can you gain experience of reacting to the pressures of a game and how that can impact on your shot selection when you are bating.

Obviously there is a challenge of facing top-quality international bowlers, particularly the Indian girls, who are so accurate. But the girls are used to facing quality male bowlers in the nets so they shouldn't have to worry about pace for example.

The hectic match schedule hasn't really allowed us to do much away from the cricket, although it has been fun getting to know the Bangladesh girls back at the team hotel.

We also have to be careful about going out at night as there are lots of animals in the surrounding area. I don't have any great ambitions to see a snake while I am here.

We will have a day off today before regrouping ahead of our next fixture where I hope the improvements in performance that we illustrated against Sri Lanka will continue.