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Mushfiqur expects good times ahead as Bangladesh bring up Test ton against Sri Lanka

Bangladesh Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim

Mushfiqur Rahim hopes Bangladesh can finally begin to meet the expectations of the country's passionate supporters ahead of the national team's 100th Test match.

The Tigers have managed just eight victories and 15 draws in the long form of the game, losing 76 five-day matches.

They earned a landmark win over England in Dhaka in October, only to suffer defeat in the subsequent four outings, including the series opener against Sri Lanka in Galle last week.

The second and final game of that two-match duel, which starts in Colombo on Wednesday, will bring up a century of Tests for Bangladesh, with captain Mushfiqur predicting better days ahead for the subcontinent's relative minnows. 

"Of course, this is a historic moment for Bangladesh cricket and if I play in this match and play as a captain, it will be a big honour for me," he told a news conference.

"When Bangladesh got Test status and played the first match in 2000, I was a student... I remember we watched that match… on television.

"From then I had a belief, hope and dream that if I could play Test cricket for Bangladesh, then it will be a big achievement. 

"Obviously in these 16 years maybe we have not been able to give Bangladesh cricket all it wanted. 

"But to be honest, the way Bangladesh has been playing in Tests for the last two, two-and-a-half years, if we can continue in that vein for two or three more years then Bangladesh will improve a lot in Tests."

Sri Lanka captain Rangana Herath hopes his players will be able to match the contributions made by centurions Kusal Mendis and Upul Tharanga, who scored 194 and 115 in the first and second innings respectively of a comfortable 295-run victory in the first Test.

"The most important thing for a team to have is a winning mentality, and I think we have that in our team," Herath said. 

"In matches we've played at home - against Australia especially - we've won. Maybe all our players won't perform in the same match, but the trust that we have in each other is what helps us progress. We've got to carry that on in the next match as well.

"We play with either six or seven batsmen, and not everyone will get runs in every match. What we stress is that whoever gets a start, needs to carry on and get a big score.

"That's what Kusal Mendis and Upul Tharanga did in the last match. I'd love to see all the batsmen get runs, and I'm sure someone will here."

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