Mashrafee bin Murtaza will captain Bangladesh in the three-match one-day international series against Zimbabwe starting from March 1, Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan confirmed on Wednesday.
‘I think he [Mashrafee] is definitely in the series against Zimbabwe. If he is not fit that is other issue,’ Nazmul told reporters in Mirpur after a board meeting.
‘We don’t have captain like Mashrafee at this moment and I have been saying this thing all the time. But there are some rules changing in our cricket. Like we don’t have beep test earlier. We introduce this thing. Mashrafee may not pass in the beep test.
‘But at the same time we have to keep it in our mind that we can’t ignore the contribution of Mashrafee behind our development in cricket. His captaincy was vital. But at the same time it is time for him to decide about his future,’ he added.
Mashrafee has not represented Bangladesh in any ODIs since their first round exit from the ICC World Cup last year in England.
Mashrafee then missed out from the Sri Lanka ODIs right after the World Cup for a last minute injury.
There were some doubts regarding Mashrafee’s place and captaincy in the ODI side, after the pacer himself left his retirement call up to the national selectors.
But Nazmul has cleared all confusion regarding the issue by declaring that the 36-year old pacer will not only play but also resume his captaincy role in the home ODI series.
Nazmul, however, said that Mashrafee was not confirmed to play in the lone Pakistan ODI yet and the board would take that decision regarding his participation in that series and his future with the national side in next month’s board meeting.
‘We have to decide about our next captain very soon keeping the World Cup in mind. We don’t have much time. We have to make decision quickly. I think we can take final decision within one month. We will be waiting till this series. Then we will take our decision,’ Nazmul said.
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