Bangladesh batsman Mohammad Ashraful is enjoying his position at the top of the order. The right-hander has found himself in and out of the national team since bursting onto the scene as a teenager in 2011.
Although he remains on the sidelines in Test and ODI cricket, Ashraful has thrived as an opener in T20 cricket since earning a recall in July.
Ashraful top-scored for his team in Saturday’s victory over Zimbabwe with 38 in a warm-up match ahead of the ICC World Twenty20.
With one more warm-up fixture before the ICC WT20 – against Ireland on Monday – Ashraful is hoping to continue his form when the tournament gets underway this week.
“I guess the opener’s role has suited me well,” he told tigercricket.com. “I have been opening the innings for a while now and have made some important contributions while batting with Tamim. Of course I would love to play bigger innings but we have not batted on the best of Twenty20 wickets in recent times. Hopefully the tracks for the main tournament games will be more batting-friendly and I will try to take this form into those games.”
Bangladesh got themselves into trouble during their run-chase against Zimbabwe when they lost three wickets for five runs midway through the innings with 50 runs still required.
Ashraful praised sixth-wicket pair Ziaur Rahman (26 not out) and Mahmudullah (23 not out) for then seeing their side home. “In a Twenty20 game this can happen,” said Ashraful. “A couple of tight overs and wickets may fall. However, we were never unduly concerned. There is a very nice balance to our team. The way Ziaur Rahman and Mahmudullah batted despite the loss of three or four wickets after Shakib and I had brought the run rate down, it was an example of the confidence in this side.”
Ashraful relishing opening role
