Habibul Bashar's men leave Dhaka with a tag of 'favourites' on Sunday morning to play a five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe before taking on Kenya in three matches.

The team think-tank met the press after forty-nine days of practice at the under-constructed venue where both coach and the captain showed their sheer confidence to win the series.

There is no doubt that their recent records against the two African rivals gave them the courage to think positive. In their last meetings the Tigers had pulled off their first-ever one-day series victory against Zimbabwe in January last year and had completed a 4-0 whitewash of Kenya in March this year at home.

"Most people would say that Bangladesh have had much more encouraging performances than Zimbabwe and they have had some problems as you all know. We will be leaving Bangladesh as favourites," responded coach Dav Whatmore.

"I think what evens up things a bit is the conditions over there. We need to get adjusted to the condition as quick as possible," added the Sri Lankan-born Australian.

The selectors took the trip as an opportunity to have a look to the young talents at the highest level and Whatmore also gave a message to young guys like uncapped Forhad Reza and Sakib Al Hasan and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for the new ones to make a mark in Bangladesh cricket and do something real good for themselves. But first of all they have to get into the eleven and if they get into the eleven in the next three weeks then they have to put their best foot forward and put pressure on the selectors because there is not too much time left between now and March-April next year," he said referring to next year's World Cup in the West Indies.

Captain Bashar said that the 'favourites' tag indicated a good sign for Bangladesh cricket and it definitely helps them to continue their recent-time supremacy against their rivals rather than just putting pressure on them.

"It is a very positive thing that people are expecting us to win a series. It proves that we have progressed as a team. The conditions are totally different but we have a very balanced team and I think we can adjust to any condition and perform to our ability," said the country's number one batsman.

To the Bangladesh skipper, a 5-0 win is not an impossible task although he thought that this Zimbabwe squad are better.

"We can definitely say that we are going to start as favourites based on the standard we have set over the last year. It may not be easy because this Zimbabwe side are probably a bit better than the one we had faced at home but nevertheless we will go there believing that we can win all the matches," Bashar assured.

When coach and captain talked about the target, chief selector Faruque Ahmed had to explain why left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak was included in the last minute and why they picked a second wicketkeeper in the team.

"True it will be seamer-friendly conditions in Zimbabwe but our spinners have had brilliant success in previous occasions against both our opponents. That is why we have picked an extra spinner to give balance to the bowling attack," explained Faruque.

"For us it is a luxury to play two wicketkeepers in the same match and that is unlikely to happen. But we want to have somebody as a backup and ready to keep wicket if something happens to long-serving (Khaled) Mashud," said Faruque regarding the selection of Bogra lad Rahim.

Faruque however hinted that Rahim has a good chance to stand behind the stumps in the series.

"Definitely we will try one of them and see who best serves the team," he added.