Ash eyes 1 or 2 wins

I STARED LIKE THAT: Aftab Ahmed (2nd from L) makes a funny face while his captain Mohammad Ashraful, Nazimuddin, Abdur Razzak and Shahadat Hossain listen to vice-captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (R) talk about the Tigers' official photo session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.Photo: Anisur Rahman

The Bangladesh cricket team flies out for Karachi in the early hours of Sunday to play five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 match against Pakistan, leaving behind a question whether they would be able to overcome their recent poor showings against top-ranked sides.
And if the Tigers want to bury their wretched performance, the batsmen must be at their best because batting remains the main headache behind Mohammad Ashraful's boys' humiliations against teams like Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa.
The effort against Ireland only helped them to regain some of the kaput confidence but the top national stars' performance in the last few rounds of the Premier League came as shock for everybody ahead of another tough series.
One point, however, might give the Bangladesh batsmen some relief that they would not face deadly fast bowlers like the banned Shoaib Akhtar or injured Mohammad Asif, but the Bangladesh skipper believes that Pakistan have plenty of options in their ranks to put the visiting side to the test.
And among all of the bowlers, Sohail Tanvir can be dangerous for the Tigers because of his wrong-footed action that has caused batsmen a lot of problems to read the ball properly.
"Pakistan will definitely miss their strike bowlers (Akhtar and Asif) but still they have a lot of variety in their attack. I think at the moment Tanvir is the most dangerous because of his unusual action. We have yet to work on the Pakistan team," said Ashraful, who is one of the two members of the squad surviving from the last trip to the country in 2003.
"Actually, we have had hardly any scope to think about who is in the team or not rather our main focus should be to play the series abiding by our team rules. I believe that we can put behind our recent bad performances against the top teams if we follow the rules set by our coach," he added.
Ashraful, who is under tremendous pressure because of inconsistent batting, however, tried to take inspiration from Zimbabwe's recent performance in Pakistan.
"Zimbabwe lost the series 5-0 but the most encouraging fact for us is that they managed 200-plus runs in every match. I firmly believe that if we can manage 220-odd runs, then anything can happen in the series. Pakistan may be too good against the spin attack but our slow bowlers also proved their worth against a team like India in the World Cup," said an optimistic Ashraful.
Bangladesh's first full series in Pakistan five years back was a memorable one because of lost opportunities, especially the Multan Test being still considered as the best the Tigers have played in eight years.
So, it would be another challenge for the boys to at least keep the standard.
"My performance was too bad in the first tour but we played good cricket in the series both in Test and one-day. Definitely everybody now wants to see some improvement from the first trip and I think we have the ability to show better performance to win at least one or two games," he hoped.
However, the 24-year-old Ashraful must lead his side from the front to make his dream come true.
"I am very much aware of my responsibilities and want to contribute something in the series to pull off one or two wins," the little man promised like he always does before any tour.