The Tigers are charged up to put aside their miserable experience in the last series in Australia as they get ready to play the coming home series against New Zealand and Shakib Al Hasan does not know where the inspiration is coming from.Daniel Vettori's side will arrive in the capital tomorrow to play two Tests and three one-day internationals against Bangladesh in Dhaka and Chittagong. "Our performance was really bad in the last series in Australia but I believe it would be a different story against New Zealand. The players are charged up to play good cricket but I don't know why," said the soft-spoken left-handed all-rounder during a practice session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
The young middle-order batsman-cum spinner, who has already established himself as a vital player in the team, however, was not ready to say anything in straight line when asked whether the departure of some national players inspired them to show better performance. "Actually a lot of things have happened in the last few days," he added with a smile. More than the 'better performance', Shakib was also very much optimistic about one win in the series. "We can even win a match in the series," he hoped. Shakib, who has a rare 30-plus average as a batsman and 50 ODI wickets in 51 appearances, however, stated a pre-condition: "We must bat up to our potential to put behind a series of bad performances.""The main problem of our batting lies in our mindset.
If our top order batsmen can bat with responsibility, anything can happen as we are going to play in our own condition. We are training hard and I believe we get the results soon." Shakib showed his character on debut against Zimbabwe in July 2006 with an unbeaten knock of 30 and never looked back, cementing his place in the side.It has been often told that his presence in the team makes a difference, which was evident during his absence in the three-nation series at home and in the Asia Cup in Pakistan. "I don't think about these things." Shakib hardly thinks what he has done so far rather his main goal remains to be the best in anything. And that was the reason Shakib, who passed the HSC examinations this year, has a desire of becoming a student of Dhaka University. "You know it's my dream to be a student of Dhaka University because in my opinion it's still the best institution in the country for higher education.
"But it gets difficult as I have hardly any chance to attend the admission tests in November because of international commitment," said Shakib adding, "only the authority can help me fulfill the dreams.""But I will definitely complete graduation because education is very important even in cricket."