Also read: Australia players, board edge closer to pay deal
Last year they draw the series against England at home. The home side lost the first Test in Chittagong by a close margin before winning the second and final Test in Dhaka in dramatic circumstances. Later, the Tigers faced New Zealand away from home in January. In the first Test, Bangladesh crafted a good start in windy condition in Basin Reserve, Wellington. Shakib al Hasan scored a double century while Mushfiqur Rahim also chipped in with a century as the duo formed a record 359-run partnership. But surprisingly, Bangladesh lost the Test by just three wickets after posting 595/8 in their first innings.
Also read: BCB shortlists MacGill as new spin bowling coach
Bangladesh suffered injury setbacks in the second Test and eventually lost by seven wickets. The Tigers then travelled to India for the one-off Test and only lost in the fifth day. In March, Bangladesh visited Sri Lanka and got bashed by the Lankans in the first Test in Galle. The Tigers however, fought back brilliantly in the second Test, registering their first ever five-day win against the island nation, at P Sara Oval in Colombo. In the process the Tigers squared the series. Following the Australia Tests, Bangladesh will fly off to South Africa for a two-match Test series. Hathurusingha admitted their tour of South Africa will be challenging to say the least, given that the Proteas are currently ranked the world's No 1 Test side.
“South Africa is an unknown place for our players. The challenge is to adapt to South African conditions, and then adjust the game-plan. The first two weeks in South Africa before the first Test is very crucial,” said Hathurusingha.“So we have to see how good we can be. They are No 1 Test team in the world for obvious reasons. Our focus is to win,” he added. Bangladesh have achieved notable success in the last few years across all formats but Hathurusingha is of the opinion that they need more consistency and need to defeat higher-ranked teams both home and away to maintain such progress and improve further. “Our target is to win away from home and beating higher-ranked teams. That’s what we need to do now. The progress for us is to maintain this success. We made it to the [2015] World Cup quarter-finals and then the [2017] Champions Trophy semi-finals. We have started winning in the sub-continent. We have a lot of areas to improve, so we are looking at consistency,” he concluded.