Mushfiqur Rahim wants to take full toll of home conditions playing against Australia

Bangladesh Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim is confident of his side’s chances against the mighty Australians who will tour Bangladesh for a 2-Test series later this month. Bangladesh won their first Test against England last year as the visiting side capitulated to some fine spin bowling in spin-friendly conditions.

Australia to tour Bangladesh after 9 years

Mushfiqur hopes to employ the same modus operandi to tame the Australians, who haven’t played a Test match in Bangladesh since 2006. The Steven Smith-led side was supposed to tour Bangladesh in 2015 but Cricket Australia took a U-turn last minute citing security issues. Prior to this tour, CA sent a security team to ascertain the arrangements for the national cricketers. After getting a green signal, the CA decided to go ahead with the tour. Australia will arrive in the country on August 18 and will play the first Test in Dhaka starting on August 27 followed by the second one in Chittagong on September 4.

Skipper Mushfiqur stated that earlier they committed a mistake of not exploiting home conditions but in due course of time, they have eradicated that aspect. “Earlier we could not take home advantage to the fullest but we are learning to do so in the last two to three years. We have got some talented bowlers and batsmen backed by some capable all-rounders and so we have the confidence that on our day we can beat any team.”

During the home series against England, Bangladesh discovered a talented off-spinner Mehedi Hasan who took 19 wickets in 2 Tests. While Mushfiqur acknowledged that his bowlers are relatively new in Test cricket but he remained positive about their ability to pick 20 wickets to force a win for their team.

“I think we have a comparatively new bowling attack in each series,” he said. “We must give them another one or two years to help them grow. But still we have the variety that is capable of taking 20 wickets.”

‘Best time to play Australia’

Musfiqur pointed out that Bangladesh might not play Australia again anytime soon after this series which gives them all the more reasons to give them a hard time in what are alien conditions to them.

“During the last 12 years we learned a lot about Test cricket,” he said. “We are confident to give them a hard time like the way we did against England and would try our level best to beat them because we don’t know when we will have the chance to play against them in Test again.

“It is the best time to play against Australia. All we need is a good start and take the momentum from there onwards.”

Australia must not take Bangladesh lightly, something which was pointed out by former Australian cricketer Dean Jones. Bangladesh have the capacity to surprise Australia, especially playing at home. Smith & Co. must be wary of a much improved Bangladesh team.