More people will follow us if we do well against team like India: Shoriful

Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam said that the team
has set a goal to put a good show against India to give the people a glimpse
of their real growth in the Test cricket.

Bangladesh completed a historic 2-0 sweep against Pakistan last week, hinting
that they are growing as a good team in Test format from a team of occasional
flashes of brilliance.

But Shoriful knows that the India Test will be a real challenge to establish
them as a force in this format, in which they are touted vulnerable more
often.

“India are comparatively a more experienced side than Pakistan in Test
cricket and we know that they are a big team,” Shoriful said in a video
message on Bangladesh Cricket Board’s Facebook page on Sunday.

“I think if we do well against a big team, it will be amazing and more people
worldwide will follow us and watch our cricket.”

Former Indian cricketer Akash Chopra recently said that Bangladesh’s real
growth in Test cricket will be justified by their result against India.

Bangladesh enjoyed a wealth of experience amongst players who gave them an
edge over Pakistan but it won’t be case against India. Moreover India have a
superb record on home soil, not losing any series for more than 4000 days.

Bangladesh’s most experience players Mushfiqur Rahim is 10 matches away from
playing 100 Tests and India have Virat Kohli (113) and Ravichandran Ashwin
(100) who played more than 100 Tests. However other players including captain
Rohit Sharma (with 59 matches) played less number of matches than the likes
of Shakib Al Hasan and Mominul Islam who played 69 and 63 matches
respectively.

In Pakistan camp, former skipper Babar Azam (54) was the only player to have
crossed the half-century mark and the closest to the premier batter was
current skipper Shan Masood with 35 matches.

“We had a greater chance of winning in Pakistan as we had more experienced
players. You can look at the contrast in the number of matches played between
players of each side,” Shoriful said.

“Shakib bhai always said that experience-wise we are ahead of them. Mushfiqur
Rahim is our most experienced player. Those examples were set in our minds.
And we believed that we’ll win against them.” (BSS)