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Our expectation is to win every series, says Hathurusingha

1Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha was unfazed by the strength and recent statistics of Pakistan in longer version cricket, stating that the opportunity to play against the sub-continent giant would be helpful to judge their position at the moment. Since Bangladesh have been playing the top level cricket at present, according to Hathurusingha, their standard would be truly justified when they will be playing against the Pakistan, No. 4 ranked team in the ICC Test ranking currently.
“Pakistan have really a strong team with experienced players in their Test squad. They beat Australia recently, they are No 4. It is good for us to play a strong opposition at this stage because we are also doing well,” the head coach told the reporters yesterday, ahead of the first Test.
Pakistan of late swept the two-match series against Australia while drew the three-match Test series 1-1 against New Zealand. Both of the series were held at UAE.
Their strength was arguably bolstered by the presence of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haque, the two batsmen who had seven centuries between them in the last five Tests. Younis struck four centuries while Misbah had three. Batsmen like Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali, the one-day captain, had also success at this period alongside the two seasoned batsmen, making the Pakistani batting line up outright strong.
Saeed Ajmal though didn’t play in those two series, his replacement Zulfiqar Babar did fairly well. Babar potentially could form a spin-attack with Ajmal, whose performance since his return to the international scene after remodeling the bowling action was not impressive at all. Still along with Babar, Ajmal is believed to play a handy role in this sort of wicket, what is predicted to be slow and low.
Those stats however at least on paper proved that the contest in Test won’t be lopsided one despite Bangladesh won 12 matches at a stretch at home across the format.
“Our expectation is to win every series. We don’t take opposition for granted or overconfident. We try to do our best and if we do that, I think we have the ability to beat any team,” Hathurusingha said adding, “Those stats give us confidence and some kind of direction. But past doesn’t count at all now.”
The coach emphasized on to have a good start as he believed “It is all about how the team starts tomorrow” and that’s why they are focusing on the first session.
He said the confidence, derived from the ODI series would inspire his players to translate the success into the longer version cricket, a format in which they are yet to beat any top flight team. They won against West Indies in the past but in that series the Caribbean side fielded a second string team after the first choice players opted out the series over payment fiasco.
The coach who has already proved him a shrewd technician added that the expectation is to win the series is not a ‘pressure’ for them rather they are preparing for it.

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