Willing to go the extra mile to play Champions Trophy - Mashrafe Mortaza

Mortaza accredited with lifting team’s morale

Bangladesh ODI captain, Mashrafe Mortaza, said that he wishes to represent Bangladesh in the Champions Trophy in 2017. Bangladesh moved up to the 7th position in the ICC ODI rankings after consecutive wins, which secured them a spot in the eight-nation tournament.

After the 2015 World Cup, Mashrafe suggested that he would decide on his future in International Cricket after the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, but recent success against dominant teams like India and Pakistan has given him new hope and reasons to look further ahead.

"Even if it was not too seriously, I did have thoughts about the end of my career, I thought I wouldn't play for a very long time but now that we have achieved it [qualification for the Champions Trophy], why not work a little harder? Champions Trophy is second only to the World Cup.

"It would be good to play the tournament. It is hard to say anything concrete now but I feel a bit of pull towards playing in the Champions Trophy. I want to work harder, keep myself fit so that I can play till then."

Prior to this, Bangladesh featured in the Champions Trophy four times, with 2006 being the last, in which they won only one match.

Before the first ODI against India, Mashrafe stated that qualifying for the Champions Trophy would be a “lifetime achievement” for seniors like Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim.

Mashrafe took over the ODI and T20 captaincy in November last year when the team ranked No.9. Since then, the Bangladesh team have whitewashed Zimbabwe and Pakistan. In their World-Cup campaign, they beat England to earn a spot in the quarter-finals. They also reached the No. 7 spot in the ranking for the first time in their cricketing history after taking a 2-0 lead against India in the recent series.

Mashrafe was bewildered by the disappointment of the nation over not completing the 3-0 whitewash against India.

"Everyone was saying before the India series that we should at least win one match," Mashrafe said.

"That if we get two wins from the India and South Africa we can qualify for the Champions Trophy, which would be enough. We ended up winning the series by winning the first two matches. But after the loss in the third match, there was more talk about how we couldn't do the Banglawash than winning the series."

To be counted amongst the top teams in the world, the skipper believes, they must perform at current levels consistently.

"Listening to some people, it seems like we have won the world. The reality is, we are ranked at No 7 in the ODI table," he said. "India are still the No 2 side after losing to us, because they have been winning for a long time. If we can win for a longer period, we can reach that place."