Newly-appointed Test vice-captain, Mahmudullah Riyad, is hopeful for the future as Bangladesh take on Sri Lanka at home. The Lankans are about to arrive in Bangladesh in January and start a tri-nation series between themselves, the host nation and Zimbabwe.

And Mahmudullah Riyad is of the opinion that while Sri Lanka know a lot about Bangladesh, the home nation’s understanding of the conditions will help them to overcome Sri Lanka.

“Sri Lanka is a great team, even though they were beaten by India before coming here. However, I feel that Sri Lanka will have a different outlook on this series. And we are also in rhythm.

“We hope to have great series and since we are playing at home, we are confident that we will utilize the conditions to do something good.

Riyad then stressed that starting the year well was a key at home conditions and that the Tigers need to find rhythm by playing well.

“We can start the year well since we are playing in our own conditions and we know our conditions well. We also have a good idea about Sri Lanka. So, we should definitely play well in order to get into rhythm.”

He finally concluded by stating the importance playing well in order to gain confidence in the away games this year—something Bangladesh will do a lot this year.

“If we get a good start at the beginning of the year, then we can progress a lot. We have to play a lot of games away from home, so we’ll gain confidence if we play well.”