Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar wanted to take inspiration from the ODI victory and improve their performance than the first Test in Chittagong, but he was also realistic about their chances.

"We left Bogra with a happy mood after our maiden one-day victory against Sri Lanka but you all know that Test match is much harder than the shorter version game. What actually inspires us is that our performance in Chittagong was not too bad," said the Bangladesh captain yesterday after their training session.

There was a lot of talking about the fragile second-innings batting in the first Test but the 33-year-old said there was no scope to concentrate only on this issue.

"We have to put on a healthy total in the first innings, otherwise there will be no chance for us to stay in contention. I think the first innings is very important for any team. We don't want to focus on just one area and our target is to show the improvement in every departments," he explained.

Bashar said that a one-man show is not good enough to be competitive against a strong team like Sri Lanka.

"(Mohammad) Ashraful made hundred in the last match but unfortunately, our second highest score was not impressive. We should ensure that at least three batsmen get big scores and then we could say that our batting has clicked."

Rather than thinking about a win or a draw, the Tigers' focus remained on making more improvements.

"We will not be unhappy if we show improvement than the previous game. We made some simple mistakes whi9ch turned out big in the end. We gave Sri Lanka tough time on the first two days and now we want to extend the period."

He also admitted that it is risky to go into the match with only two pacers.

"Yes, it is risky because we will face a big problem if any of them breaks down. But we are used to play with four bowlers and I think we don't have a real back-up bowler we can rely on," he observed.

Defending the team's decision to retain Nafees Iqbal, he mentioned that it was not good of the opener go get out in both innings playing wild shots after he had looked confident early.

"We have just given him a message that we don't want him to throw out for playing bad shots. Actually, we are looking for a settled opening pair that's why we don't want to replace him," he added.

TEAMS
BANGLADESH (from): Habibul Bashar (captain), Khaled Mashud, Javed Omar, Nafees Iqbal, Moha-mmad Ashraful, Shahriar Nafees, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Rafique, Enamul Haque Jr, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel and Rajin Saleh.

SRI LANKA (from): Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Kumar Sangakkara (vice-captain), Upul Tharanga, Michael Vandort, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Kapugedera, Prasanna Jayawar-dene, Muttiah Muralidaran, Malinga Bandara, Farveez Maharoof, Dammika Prasad, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Thilan Samaraweera and Sajeewa Weerakoon.