Shoriful vows to carry his last year form into BPL

Pace bowler Shoriful Islam vowed to further cement his place as the leading pacer of Bangladesh by carrying his last yearn form into the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), set to start on January 19.

Bangladesh have a packed International schedule in this year with the T20 World Cup in the main focus. A good performance in BPL will be a precursor to the success in the upcoming matches, according to the lanky fast bowler, BSS

“The last year, specially the last six/seven months have been good for me. I will return to the cricket with BPL this year. I will try to carry my last year’s form to this tournament,” Shoriful, who led the Bangladesh bowling attack successfully last year in the absence of the likes of Taskin Ahmed and Ebadot Hossain, told the reporters today.

He said as the T20 World Cup will be held this year, he would like to play BPL keeping the global tournament in mind.

“No doubt, BPL will help a lot since T20 World Cup is ahead. This is our prime T20 tournament. Everyone wants to draw the attention by performing well here. I think the tournament will benefit us in preparing for the T20 World Cup,” he remarked.

Because of packed schedule, which included 14 Tests apart from a number of bilateral series and T20 World Cup, the workload of the fast bowlers has come under the scanner. Shoriful had to take huge load in absence of Taskin and Ebadot last year, which many believes will raise his injury concern in the coming days.

The fitness issue is in Shoriful’s mind also as he said he would try his best to keep him fit to play for the country.

“There will be an earnest endeavor to play as many matches as I can to by staying fit. We have packed International schedule ahead so my target is to play for the country.”

Shoriful will be playing for Durdanto Dhaka in this BPL along with his national team teammate Taskin Ahmed. It is believed both of the first choice pacers of Bangladesh would hunt in tandem to keep the opponents on toes.

“Our first goal is to reach the playoffs. If we can make it, we’ll try to play the final. We have some good local players like myself, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat, Taskin Ahmed, Irfan Shukkur, Saif Hassan, Naim Sheikh…if we local players can do well, and can come up with some match winning performances, it would be great for the team.”