More people will follow us if we do well against team like India: Shoriful

Dhaka, 8 Sep -Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam said that the team has set a goal to put a good show against India to give the people a glimpse of their real growth in the Test cricket.

Bangladesh completed a historic 2-0 sweep against Pakistan last week, hinting that they are growing as a good team in Test format from a team of occasional flashes of brilliance. 

But Shoriful knows that the India Test will be a real challenge to establish them as a force in this format, in which they are touted vulnerable more often.

"India are comparatively a more experienced side than Pakistan in Test cricket and we know that they are a big team," Shoriful said in a video message on Bangladesh Cricket Board's Facebook page on Sunday.

"I think if we do well against a big team, it will be amazing and more people worldwide will follow us and watch our cricket."

Former Indian cricketer Akash Chopra recently said that Bangladesh's real growth in Test cricket will be justified by their result against India.

Bangladesh enjoyed a wealth of experience amongst players who gave them an edge over Pakistan but it won't be case against India. Moreover India have a superb record on home soil, not losing any series for more than 4000 days. 

Bangladesh's most experience players Mushfiqur Rahim is 10 matches away from playing 100 Tests and India have Virat Kohli (113) and Ravichandran Ashwin (100) who played more than 100 Tests. However other players including captain Rohit Sharma (with 59 matches) played less number of matches than the likes of Shakib Al Hasan and Mominul Islam who played 69 and 63 matches  respectively.

In Pakistan camp, former skipper Babar Azam (54) was the only player to have crossed the half-century mark and the closest to the premier batter was current skipper Shan Masood with 35 matches. 

"We had a greater chance of winning in Pakistan as we had more experienced players. You can look at the contrast in the number of matches played between players of each side," Shoriful said.

"Shakib bhai always said that experience-wise we are ahead of them. Mushfiqur Rahim is our most experienced player. Those examples were set in our minds. And we believed that we'll win against them."