Bangladesh technical consultant Sridharan Sriram backed Soumya Sarkar despite his quick exit in the fourth and final of the tri-nation series at the Hagley Oval on Thursday.

Soumya, who finished with a 16-ball 23, could bag a run-a-ball 4 in their final match against Pakistan, that surely shortened the Tigers' total as they could sling 173-5 and their counterpart chased it down, losing just three wickets with a ball to spare.

However, Soumya’s knock against the Kiwis contended his coach greatly.

‘He played a shot and got out. That is intent. He tried. I think he was selfless, he played for the team. It happens. He played a good knock in the last game. There are good signs, player like him need to really install the confidence,’ said Sridharan in the post-match press conference.

Given the Tiger opener's consistent lackluster performance in this position, Bangladesh team management promoted Soumya to open alongside his partner Najmaul Hossain, who had been sent at three in the previous game.

And this was the fifth consecutive experiment that Bangladesh team management ran in the opening slot since the Asia Cup; as in the first game in the tri-nation Sabbir Rahman-Mehidy Hasan were sent followed by Mihidy- Najmul Hossain, Najmul-Lition Das and Najmul-Soumya Sarker.

Although Sridharan is not willing to address it as an experiment.

‘You look at it as an experiment, you look at it as different combinations, right? I don’t think it’s an experiment. "We can only learn about a place if we put them in different situations and see how they react."