We will stretch India: Ashraful

The 22-year-old played a sterling knock of 87 in engineering an upset over then world’s number one-ranked team South Africa during the World Cup in the Caribbean and tends to do well against big teams and usually has been at the forefront of the run-charge in his country’s wins against bigger Test nations such as Australia, India and South Africa.

Ashraful also felt that the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from the one-day squad could hurt the chances of the visiting Indians. “Definitely, the absence of Tendulkar and Ganguly is a massive handicap for them as those two can win matches on their own. But we should concentrate on our game,” Ashraful said.

Ashraful denied that being the vice-captain, he was under pressure and said he primarily focused on his batting and assisting the captain when required. “My job remains scoring runs. It’s the captain who has to deal with pressure most of the time. I will offer any help I can to the captain and will assist him but the bottomline is that I have to bat well in the middle.”

He does not have the figures to justify his mercurial talent but when on song, he could put to rack any bowling attack in the world. He has played 33 Tests for 1,511 runs at an average of 24.37 with three hundreds and 158 being his highest. In 99 one-dayers, he has 1824 runs at an average of 21.97 and has hit one century.

Ashraful is expected to lead Bangladesh into the next era with Bashar deciding that the present one-day series against India would be his last. “I want to leave on a high. I’m saying so because we don’t play any more odi’s at home this year and I don’t see myself continuing in limited-overs cricket.”

Bashar though wants to continue in Tests in which he has scored 2,838 runs from 42 Tests at an average of 34.60 with three centuries and 24 half-centuries. His one-day record of 2,125 runs from 109 one-dayers suffers in comparison and he averages just 21.68.