Australia
slumped to their first-ever T20I loss to Bangladesh, struggling against the
home side’s spin attack as they fell short of a modest 132-run target by 23
runs in the opener of a five-match series in Dhaka on Tuesday.

At the Sher-e-Bangla stadium, Australia’s struggles against spin were in the spotlight once again as left-arm leggie Nasum Ahmed put in a man-of-the-match performance, scalping four wickets for just 19 runs from four overs. The 26-year-old dismissed Josh Philippe (9), top-scorer Mitchell March (45), skipper Matthew Wade (13) and Ashton Agar (7).

Australia’s troubles against spin were also apparent in the 4-1 series loss to West Indies last month, in which they lost four consecutive matches.   

Bangladesh bowled
a total of 13 overs of spin, with their spinners taking the first six wickets
and the two left-arm pacers cleaning up the tail-enders.

Also Read | History unkind to India on England turf

Australia were
well-placed to turn around their torrid form in the shortest format, having lost
four consecutive T20I series and winning just five of 16 matches in the process,
after restricting the hosts to 131/7 but made the worst possible start to their
chase.

Alex Carey opened
the innings in the absence of regular skipper Aaron Finch, and was dismissed
off the very first ball of the innings by Mehdi Hasan. Ahmed then had Philippe stumped
in the second over with Moises Henriques bowled by Shakib Al Hasan in the
third.

Wickets
kept falling at regular intervals for the visitors as no Aussie batsman other than
Marsh scored more than 13 runs.

Also Read | Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan smashes world record for most T20I runs in calendar year

For
Bangladesh, Shakib top-scored with a 33-ball 36, with Josh Hazlewood the pick
of the bowlers, finishing with figures of 3/24 from overs overs.

This is the
first bilateral T20 series played between Australia and Bangladesh. The two
nations have met four times at various World Cups, with Australia winning each
of those encounters.