Tigers Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim expressed that they have the capability to beat the 'new-look' Australia side, given they continue playing the fearsome brand of cricket.
Recently fresh from the Ashes defeat to England, the Aussies have rested their two front-line quickies Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood while Adam Voges was named as Steven Smith's deputy.
10 of the 15 named for the Bangladesh tour have played less than 10 Test matches as Mushfiq believes this a great opportunity for them to beat the untested Australians.
“Its not as though only if a young side comes to Bangladesh, will they lose. The South African side that played against us was top-class, but they still lost. India’s full side lost to us. The main thing was that we played good and consistent cricket this year and that’s why the wins have come.
“So our main target will be to keep the focus that we have kept this year. Now if, we don’t get a result despite playing well, that’s a different issue, but our main target will be to play good and consistent cricket. I don’t think there will be a better opportunity to beat Australia, so we will try to give our 100 per cent and more than hundred percent in the two Tests,” Mushfiq told reporters yesterday.
The 28-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman termed Smith and Glenn Maxwell as the key players for the visitors and expressed his desire to keep the exploding batsman Maxwell, who is making a comeback to the Test side, under pressure from the word go.
In the absence of David Warner, Johnson and Hazlewood Tasmania fast bowler Andrew Fekete and Western Australia opening batsman Cameron Bancroft are very likely to wear the baggy green cap.
“It was expected because Hazlewood and Johnson were rested before. The players whom we predicted would come are all coming. There are two new players and we don’t know much about them. But there is still time so hopefully we can know more about them by the time the series begins. Although this a young side, its an Australian team, we can’t forget that,” said the former Bangladesh one-day international captain.
Bangladesh Cricket Board has scheduled the National Cricket League ahead of the two-match series to give the cricketers some match practice while the current Bangladesh A team, which contains top line national players, tour to India will also help prepare the Tigers.
Mushfiq, who did not want to talk about the plan they chalked out for the Aussies, hopes for a pitch that will assist his bowlers to take 20 wickets and at the same time help them score 400 plus.
Bangladesh were agonisingly close to a win in the first of the two-Test during Australia's last visit to Bangladesh in 2006. The Tigers skipper opined that the time have changed and they are now very much capable of pulling a win in the longer version.
