Ariful confident of Tigers' all-round class

The Bangladesh team think-tank is desperately looking for a pace-bowling all-rounder who can make an impact with the ball as well as fulfil the desire of the team in terms of late salvos with the bat down the order. That experiment has been conducted with Mohammad Saifuddin and Ariful Haque, but the former was included in the HP squad and the latter was drafted into the preliminary squad for the series against Afghanistan and West Indies.

Ariful has a good chance of making the final squad for the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in Dehradun. After playing only two T20Is against Sri Lanka at home and travelling with the team to Sri Lanka in their last series, how does this 25-year-old all-rounder look at his career?

"My main target is to establish myself in the national side because my place is not yet confirmed. I have to prepare myself as an all-rounder. I bowl in domestic cricket, although I didn't get much opportunity in BPL and I am yet to bowl for the national side, but if the chance comes my way I will try to capitalise on my experience," responded Ariful to the reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

For Ariful, hard-hitting does not mean going for the big shot against every delivery; he instead values strike-rotation above all. "When I bat I concentrate on ones and twos and punish the bad ball. I want to avoid dot balls and rotate the strike. I try to play the big shots in the latter parts of my innings," he said.

It was also confirmed by the all-rounder that the team has already started planning about how they can handle the Afghanistan bowling attack, especially their two spinners Rashid Khan and Mujib Ur Rahman.

"We watched their bowlers in the IPL. They have Mujib but we didn't see him much but we watched Rashid in the IPL. Actually, we are preparing in a way so that we can handle them," he added. Ariful's place for the tour is not yet confirmed but the all-rounder believes that Bangladesh will win all three matches against Afghanistan.

"Their bowling is good but I don't think their batting is as good as their bowling. On the other hand, both our batting and bowling are good. It will be an exciting series and I believe we will win all three games," he hoped.