Durdanto Shoriful Islam, a Dhaka pacer, has placed the onus on local players to perform well in the forthcoming Bangladesh Premier League, which begins on January 19.
“Our primary goal will be to finish in the top four.” If we can do that, we shall consider the final. We have Taskin (Ahmed), Mosaddek Hossain, Irfan Shukkur, Saif Hassan, and Naim Sheikh; if we, the local players, do well and give match-winning performances, then we can do well as a team,” Shoriful told reporters on Monday at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
Shoriful, who will be joined by national team pace partner Taskin Ahmed in the Dhaka attack, has been one of Bangladesh’s most productive white-ball pacers. He has collected 40 wickets in 24 innings, which is only surpassed by Taskin’s 42 wickets in 25 innings.
Last season, the 22-year-old played in Dhaka’s opening three matches, taking four wickets and influencing a single win. His team won the following two games before embarking on a six-match losing run that dashed their chances of making the top four. Dhaka finished seventh, one spot above the bottom-placed Chattogram Challengers, thanks to a victory in their last group-stage encounter.
Bangladesh intends to utilize the tournament’s tenth edition as a warm-up for the forthcoming T20 World Cup in the United States and the West Indies in June.
Shoriful encouraged his teammates to hone their T20 talents ahead of the big tournament.
“Because we have a T20 World Cup coming up, the BPL will be extremely beneficial to us.” “Because this is our main T20 tournament, everyone will try to perform and do something different,” Shoriful added.