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Dhaka: Bangladesh's young all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who has been lauded as one of cricket's brightest prospects, believes his country can soon lift itself into the top tier of the game.
Bangladesh have floundered against the world's best, but Shakib has recently led by example, becoming the top all-rounder in global One-day rankings and winning the Wisden Cricketer magazine's Test Player of the Year for 2009.
The soft-spoken 22-year-old, standing in as Bangladesh captain in place of the injured Mashrafe Mortaza, said the nation could transform cricket's world order.
"One day, no one will consider Bangladesh the underdogs," Shakib said.
"There will be no automatic predictions that we will end up losing. In the next five years I want to see Bangladesh ranked third to fifth in the world."
Bangladesh, who won Test status in 2000, have won just three of their 61 Tests so far, losing 52 while six were drawn.
They have enjoyed better success in One-day cricket, winning 55 of their 211 matches, including a place in the second round of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.
Shakib, a left-arm spinner, became an overnight star when he led Bangladesh to their first Test win abroad against a second-string West Indies in July.
In the eight Tests Shakib played between September 2008 and August 2009 against tough opponents like New Zealand and South Africa, he took 45 wickets, including five 5-wicket hauls, and scored 498 runs at an average of 35.57.
Last week he captained a comfortable 4-1 One-day home series win over Zimbabwe.
Shakib said he did not consider the captaincy role a burden but looked forward to the return of Mortaza, who has been sidelined since July because of knee problems.
