Bangladesh were likely to miss the service of Mushfiqur Rahim in their one-off Test series against Zimbabwe at home as the wicketkeeper-batsman was yet to fully recover from the hamstring injury he sustained in the Bangladesh Premier League.
Bangladesh are scheduled to host Zimbabwe for one-off Test on February 22-26 at Sher-e Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, after playing the first of the two-Test series in Pakistan on February 7-11 in Rawalpindi.
Mushfiq, who skipped the Pakistan series for security concerns, had previously expressed desire to return to the national team from the Zimbabwe series.
But the 32-year old aggravated the hamstring injury he suffered in BPL7 and couldn’t take part in the Bangladesh Cricket League first round match, which began on Friday.
Chief selector Minhajul Abedin on Friday said that they would initially announce same 14-man squad for both the Pakistan Tests and the lone Zimbabwe Test, but they were open to include Mushfiq in the home Test squad if the batsman could recover from his injury.
‘He [Mushfiq] is already injured. He is yet to recover from that injury. If he recovers from the injury and play in BCL then we will consider him for Zimbabwe series,’ Minhajul said.
‘We are naming one Test squad for all three Test matches. We will only change the squad if anyone passes the fitness Test.
‘As the BCL is going on, we will definitely count the performances from here. But we will count the experiences most and will not compromise with that. Test cricket is such a game where you have to put experience first. So I think that there is no scope of any experiment,’ he added.
Minhajul also said that they were going keep their trust on Mominul Haque to lead the side in both the Test series despite the national team’s disastrous showing under him in the India Tests.
‘Mominul will lead the team in the next three Tests as like he did in the previous two Tests. We are keeping our faith in him,’ Minhajul said.
Mominul was handed the Test captaincy after Sakib al Hasan received a two-year ban (one year suspended) by the ICC but under his captaincy Bangladesh lost both their Tests in India by an innings margin within the third day.
-new age
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