Najmul Hossain Shanto addressing his first press conference as all-format captain.

Najmul Hossain Shanto wants general improvements to Bangladesh's Test cricket and targets an ODI tournament victory during his tenure as the country's all-format skipper. Najmul, who acted as interim skipper in the absence of Shakib Al Hasan, will take over full-time responsibilities with the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, starting on March 4.

Ahead of the series during his first official press conference at Sylhet on Sunday (March 3), the left-handed batter thanked Bangladesh Cricket Board for giving him the opportunity to lead the side in all three formats and said not having to split captaincy duties across formats would help him to plan better as a leader.

"I know it [being all format captain] is challenging but for planning it will be easier. I have to know about every cricketer though we stay together and playing together but to do the planning it will be easier as I am in charge of three formats. I hope something good will happen," Najmul told reporters at SICS.

"I don't think we have improved a lot in Test cricket but we are playing better than before and what I want personally is that when we are playing at home we can win those matches and everyone should build-up [understand] the importance of Test cricket. When we are going abroad we should be able to compete.

"In ODIs we are doing good but as a team we are yet to win a big tournament so want to move forward with the plan on how we can play well in a big tournament and bring a trophy for the country," he said.

Najmul had a forgettable BPL campaign, scoring just 175 runs from 12 games at an average of 14.58 and a strike-rate of 93.58, but he isn't worried about his form or feels like he has to do something more now that he is captain of the national team.

"I don't think I am playing badly... because of my throat though there was some irritation it is just that I had a bad tournament and I am working on that and hopefully it will be better in the coming days," he said.

"I have to score even if I am not the captain and it is not a fact that I have to score extra because of being the captain. I feel I am a batter first and my job is to score runs when I am batting and later I will fulfill my duty inside and outside the ground, but I am not seeing it like I am captain so I have to do something extra in the batting and when I am batting I will be fulfilling my responsibility," he said.

Najmul added that the T20 series against Sri Lanka will mark the start of their preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup and added that going into it straight from the BPL would hold the T20 side in good stead. "I think it is important that before the World Cup we will play eight to 11 matches and if we can plan properly and organise ourselves from here in that case it will be easier to play the World Cup," he said.

"I think it is important to play as a team and if we see last year everyone had contribution and in every [T20] match and this is something that we need to continue and how we have faith on one another that is important and if we can grow that in the coming days. It is important that we are beginning the series after such a big tournament [BPL] and it is easier for us to plan because we are coming playing in this format," he said

Najmul is confident of a strong showing from his side and added that no attention was being given to occasionally acrimonious incidents in games between these two side viz. Naagin dance or the timed-out dismissal controversy. "We have hundred percent faith that we can win the series," said Najmul. "Against Sri Lanka we are not thinking about outside things like what happened in the past and hopefully will have a good series and we are focusing on our plan and will do what we need to do and hopefully will have good series.

"Every international series brings pressure and it is true for us as well as the opponent and it will remain that way and everyone is enough matured to handle these things. They have a very good team and especially they have all-rounders but still we are playing at home condition and so there will be advantage for us and I hope we can play some good cricket," he concluded.