Shakib Al Hasan Credits IPL in Helping him Bowl at Indian Batsmen

Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan on Friday entered the 100th Test wicket club by picking up four key Indian wickets, and the ace all-rounder said he was rewarded for simply putting the ball in the right areas on third day of the one-off Test here.(Shakib Takes 100 Test Wickets at Home)

"The IPL helped me a lot because I know all of them (Indian players) very well. In a way it's positive as well as negative because they know my game pretty well as well. What I needed to do was put the ball in the right areas and wait for mistakes because it wasn't a pitch where you can get wickets easily. Today I was lucky enough to get those wickets," the left-arm spinner said.(Shakib Denies Rahane Ton)

The 28-year-old Shakib (4/105) picked up the crucial wickets of ton-up openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane to halt India's charge at 462 for six before rain stopped proceedings on day three at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium.

While admitting Bangladesh's mistake on the opening day of the match, Shakib said the pitch hardly has anything to offer to the bowlers.

"I think our approach on the first day wasn't right. We can be much better," Shakib said at the post-day's press conference.

"They batted consciously in the first hour. Whenever they tried to score runs quickly they lost wickets. That's how they lost some momentum and couldn't score at the rate they wanted to. That's what I felt.

"That's a positive sign for our bowling attack that we kept on taking wickets," he added.

With two full day's play remaining in the match, India in all probability will declare on Saturday morning and Shakib feels the hosts will have to fight out of their skin to save the Test.

"We know that there will be some hard parts whenever they declare because they will come hard at us. Still there are two days left and they have got five quality bowlers who can take 20 wickets," he said.

"But if we apply ourselves I think we have a very good chance. The way we have been playing in the last 6-8 months I think we should survive the difficult parts and come out on top. We are up for the challenge."