We start the New Year with a lot of confidence because of our second innings performance in the first Test (against Sri Lanka). We are getting better as a team and the boys believe that.

This year we will have plenty of opportunities to show our improvement. We will try to play well in this Test match at Chittagong against Sri Lanka. We need to bat four sessions at least in the first innings. If we do that then we'll have a decent score on the board. That's the pre-requisite for us getting a positive result in Test matches and a positive result can be a win also.

The pitch will be very dry and devoid of grass. Very different from the one in Dhaka but almost similar to the track we played on against New Zealand here in October. It looks like a pitch where the spinners may play a role.

That will of course bring Sri Lanka’s two dangermen into play. I am aware that there is a chance Ajantha Mendis might play here. Some of us have played him in one-day internationals during the Asia Cup. But one-dayers and Test matches are different.

Mushie (Mushfiqur Rahim) and Roqibul (Hassan) played him quite well. We have seen him bowling against India on television. We also have footage but it is important not to think of him or (Muttiah) Muralitharan too much and just try to play ball by ball. He has done very well in recent times and has taken heaps of wickets but our focus will be on playing each ball on its merit because this is a Test match.
 
Regarding Murali, he is world-class and takes wickets against every opposition. Still I think that we are reading him better but we have to show that over a long period of time. Too often we have only done that for short periods.