Mustafizur Rahman ruled out of opening round of NCL with injury
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) confirmed on Wednesday that Mustafizur Rahman has been ruled out of the opening round of the National Cricket League, Bangladesh’s premier first-class tournament. The pacer is currently nursing an ankle injury and will not be able to recover from it in stipulated time.
Mustafizur was all set to join his domestic side Khulna, but after being informed by Bangladesh's physiotherapist Julian Calefato that he wasn’t ready to take the load of four-day games, the Fizz decided to opt out of training and returned to the airport. This was disheartening for him as he was working very hard on his fitness in order to recover in time for the NCL opening round.
Being a strike bowler, his absence will hurt his team big time. However, national selector Habibul Bashar understands that playing him in the NCL before he is fully fit will have a chance of him aggravating his ankle injury, thus increasing the possibility of missing out from the international scheme of things for an extended period of time.
"He is not available for the opening game of NCL as he's yet to recover fully from the ankle injury to take the load of longer-version cricket," Bashar told Cricbuzz on Wednesday.
“According to the physio, Mustafizur is yet to bowl a certain amount of overs in the practice match that will confirm whether he is fully fit to take the load of bowling 25 to 30 overs a day," he added.
Bangladesh will begin their ICC test championship campaign with a two-match Test series against India. Having lost convincingly to minnows Afghanistan, Bashar is aware of the fact that the Bangladesh team will have to prepare well for providing tough competition to the mighty Indian team especially in the subcontinent conditions. He is hopeful that Mustafizur will at least get to the second round of games in NCL which will give him enough match practice and timeframe to get fully fit for the India series. He further added that Mehdy Hassan is also rested for the opening round of NCL.
“We are hoping to have him in the second phase of NCL as he is expected to complete the required amount of bowling during this time frame. The board is not going to accept any kind of excuse for unavailability, unless really valid - like an injury concern,” he signed off. Â