"We definitely have the confidence and belief to win the series," Mortaza stated on Saturday (October 1). "I don't think that one defeat will end all the work that we have done and all our achievements so far. We were all obviously disappointed but that doesn't mean that we have forgotten all the good work that we have done. It was a bad day. If we think about that when we get on the field it will be difficult for us, so we are trying to get on the field with a free mentality."
Before the three-match ODI series commenced, Bangladesh found themselves in a rather unfamiliar situation of being tagged as favourites. However, Mortaza pointed out that the defeat in the second game was not down to complacency.
"[If they win the series] I will feel that they are deserving winners. In the past, we won many matches and people called them upsets, but we didn't accept them as upsets. It is not right. They should definitely get the credit.
"We never took them as an easy opponent, which was clear after the first game. In the second match our batting collapsed. At one point we recovered, but still we kept losing wickets. We couldn't play our best game."
The home side's batsmen have largely struggled to convert starts into big scores. Mortaza took the example of Kumar Sangakkara to drive home the point that the batsmen shouldn't take the opposition lightly and compile tall scores. Sangakkara notched up seven Test hundreds and five ODI hundreds against Bangladesh in his illustrious career.
"We have all discussed this in the dressing room. If someone can score a 150, then it becomes a big deal for his career. Kumar Sangakkara has scored so many 150s and 200s against us. I am sure that our batsmen aren't taking them lightly. Maybe there was a bit of a break in concentration.
"We are all mature individuals. If you see the top five batsmen in our line-up, at least one of them scored big in each game in the last 18 months. But when they don't, we will always get a low score."
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