Shahriar Nafees hopes to carry on his batting after a good start as Bangladesh were preparing themselves for the third ODI against the Black Caps at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday.
‘I think the third ODI will take place because the weather forecast suggested that there will be sunshine on Monday. Bangladesh are in a nice position in the third game,’ Shahriar said.
Shahriar who replaced Tamim Iqbal, after he [Tamim] ruled himself out of the series due to his wrist operation in Australia, hit three consecutive boundaries before falling victim to Daniel Vettori on 35. However, thinks the team are in the right frame of mind to show more depth.
‘In the last match I got a good start but failed to carry on, that is something I don’t want to miss in the next match. So that will be my target to have a good start for me as well as for my team,’ Shahriar said.
‘Vettori delivered a good ball but I got out due to my lack of concentration. I’ll be very careful to continue my innings this time as I don’t want to get out early,’ Shahriar said.
‘We are improving day by day and want to keep up the trend. We won the last match, but we have enough room left to improve the level of our game. We are positive and everybody is in good shape. So, we are hopeful of showing more depth in our batting and earning a positive result in the third match as well,’ said the opening batsman.
‘We want to take one match at a time. If we can win the next match, that will be a big step. But we are not thinking about the series rather we are now focused on the next game, if we want to win the series we have to win at least two of the remaining three one-dayers. We are not thinking about the other matches at the moment,’ Shahriar said.
After Tamim’s return the future of the left-hander will be decided based on his performance in this series.
‘I will try my best to play my natural game; I will just stick to that game plan. Tamim is the automatic choice when he recovers, I want to cement my position with good showing in the next three matches of the series if I get a chance to play,’ he said.
