I never played so poorly: Rafique

Those who are interested more or less in Bangladesh cricket know very well about Mohammad Rafique's mindset. With a simple personality and an enviable determination, he has been an inseparable part of the national cricket team since 1994. After the inaugural test, selectors decided that Rafique doesn't fit in test matches. Accordingly Rafique was kept aside for one-dayers only. From then on Rafique was not considered for test matches for long five years. It was his good performance in 18 ODIs that finally saw him in the test squad again in 2003.

Rafique's return to test arena was not the least dramatic. Though he was selected for Australian tour, he could not play in any of the two test matches. When he took the wickets of Hayden and Gilchrist for only 19 runs in an ODI, Aussie captain Steve Waugh wondered why Rafique did not play in test matches.

After that it was the Pakistan tour where Rafique bagged highest number of wickets in the series, 17 from three-match series. He showed the board officials- how his exclusion was damaging the team. After that performance Rafique became a regular member of the test team also.

He has played 30 tests so far and has taken 94 wickets. His Sri Lanka tour began leaving him only 6 wickets shy from 100. Six wickets from 3 tests- such was the target in his recent Lankan tour. But this time Rafique’s luck didn't seem to favour him. Even during the Lankan tour in 2005, Rafique took 10 wickets. But in the recent series it is merely 1 from 2 matches and again it costed him 272 runs.

Is this because Rafique is out of form? Ex-captain Habibul Bashar says, "Rafique is our main bowler. But he is not getting wickets. If he performs, we can easily overcome the existing poor run in bowling". Rafique also agrees with his long time teammate. "I always feel that it requires a special gift to bag wickets. I am not having gift recently. This was the worst ever tour in my whole career".

300 or 350. But they played absolutely pressure-free innings as the target was so low. That is why they could make big scores so easily.

Q. Your personal assessment about the team's failure.

Rafique: Sri Lanka is the team against whom we played most number of tests. They have worked a lot on us. They have identified our weak points and hit accordingly. They now know well about our styles.

Before Lanka tour, Rafique went to India to play Afro-Asia cup. Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene was his captain over there. Rafique explains, "I always found him playing more with me during the net practice. I realized he had been preparing for next series."

Q. What happened to the 'not so bad' batsman Rafique this time?

Rafique: Actually I am not comfortable playing new balls. But during this tour, I had to face new balls, almost all the time. For this reason I did not score runs.