Dhaka: Bangladesh vice-captain Mohammed Ashraful on Monday said his side had plans to stretch Rahul Dravid’s men in the upcoming series.

“They will come hard at us as they probably lost out on a Super Eight berth because of us. But they could find themselves stretched here,” said Ashraful.

Ashraful, in line to succeed long-serving captain Habibul Bashar, said his side could repeat their World Cup performance against India in the series beginning later this week.

“We can beat the best, we have shown that in the past, and if everything clicks we can expect something good out of this series,” said Ashraful, who will play his 100th ODI on Thursday.

In the World Cup, the 22-year-old played a sterling knock of 87 during an upset over then world’s No. 1-ranked team South Africa. Ashraful returned Bangladesh’s highest scorer with 216 from nine matches at an average of 36.00.

Ashraful also felt that the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from the one-day squad could hurt the chances of the visiting side.

“Definitely, the absence of Sachin and Sourav is a massive handicap as they can win matches on their own. But we should concentrate on our game,” Ashraful said.

The first two one-dayers will be played in Mirpur on May 10 and 12 followed by the final game in Chittagong on May 15. The two Test matches that follow are scheduled in Chittagong from May 18, and Dhaka from May 25.

Ashraful denied that being the vice-captain, he was under pressure and said he primarily focused on his batting and assisted the captain when required.

“My job remains scoring runs. It’s the captain who has to deal with pressure most of the time. I will offer any help I can to the captain and will assist him but the bottomline is that I have to bat well in the middle.”

He does not have the figures to justify his mercurial talent but when on song, he could put to rack any bowling attack in the world. He has played 33 Tests for 1,511 runs at an average of 24.37 with three hundreds.

In 99 one-dayers, he has 1824 runs at an average of 21.97 and has hit a solitary century. Ashraful is expected to lead Bangladesh into the next era with Bashar deciding that the present one-day series against India would be his last.

“I want to leave on a high. I’m saying so because we don’t play any more one-dayers at home this year and I don’t see myself continuing in limited-overs cricket by the time the next one-day series is held in Bangladesh.”

Bashar though wants to continue in Tests in which he has scored 2,838 runs from 42 Tests at an average of 34.60 with three centuries and 24 half-centuries.

His one-day record of 2,125 runs from 109 one-dayers suffers in comparison and he averages just 21.68. Bashar’s performance in World Cup was decidedly poor and he scored only 105 runs from nine matches at a paltry average of 13.12. (PTI)