We can challenge New Zealand - Shakib

Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh allrounder, is confident his team can give New Zealand a fight in the upcoming home series and possibly win a game or two. Shakib summed up the positive mood in the camp, saying that the players had put the poor tour of Australia behind them and were determined to make a fresh start.

"Our performance was really bad in the last series in Australia but I believe it would be a different story against New Zealand," Shakib said after a practice session at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur. "The players are charged up to play good cricket but I don't know why."

Bangladesh have been ravaged by a mass exodus of 14 players to the unofficial ICL and the list includes the names of current players like Aftab Ahmed and Nazimuddin. Their departure, Shakib assured, wouldn't throw the national team off balance. "We can even win a match in the series," he said.

Shakib said the 3-0 defeat in the one-dayers in Australia was because the batsmen failed to give a good account of themselves. Bangladesh were in with a chance to pull off an upset win in the third one-dayer, but the batting collapsed in the chase of 199.

"We must bat to our potential to put behind a series of bad performances," he said. "The main problem of our batting lies in our mindset. If our top order batsmen can bat responsibly, anything can happen as we are going to play in our own (home) conditions. We are training hard and I believe we will get the results soon."

New Zealand begin their tour on October 9 with the first of three one-dayers, followed by two Tests. New Zealand swept the two Tests and three ODIs at home when the teams last met in December-January.