Mahmudullah back to bowling long spells after recovering from a shoulder injury

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Bangladesh all-rounder Mahmudullah was back to bowling long spells in the National Cricket League (NCL) after a long injury lay-off. The all-rounder had suffered a grade three muscle tear against New Zealand at Hamilton in February, which forced him to rule out bowling in the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

Mahmudullah bowled short spells in the ODI series against Sri Lanka and bowled four overs in the one-off Test against Afghanistan. But in order to not aggravate the injury and trying to reach full fitness, he used to bowl with a round-arm action sometimes. But all this seems to be taken care of as he has bowled long spells now in Bangladesh premier Domestic cricket competition, the NCL.

The 33-year-old bowled 39 overs for Dhaka Metro, across two innings, against Chattogram Division. He also picked up six wickets, which included the prized scalp of Tamim Iqbal on two occasions in the drawn match. He was satisfied with his bowling and wanted to build on what has been a good start.

"I could not bowl for seven months because of my shoulder injury, so I tried to bowl some overs in the middle," he said to CricBuzz.

"I had a good bowling practice as I tried to bowl as many overs as possible because that was my target. My bowling always gives me some added confidence in my batting," he added.

Mahmuddulah has his eyes set on the upcoming Test series against India and he wants to contribute to his team with his batting and bowling, thus making him a valuable asset for the Bangladesh team. He feels that the NCL is like a national team selection trial for the India series.

"We have the India series coming up. It's a big series and every national team player is trying to perform and get a chance in the squad," he said.

Mahmudullah also discarded rumours that Bangladesh national team players were least interested in playing the NCL as many players like Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, etc. are playing the NCL after a long gap. He cleared by saying that it was the busy schedule that stopped them from participating in the NCL. He further assured that for the players it was important to play cricket, without thinking whether the cricket played is at the domestic or at the international level.

"We had lots of international matches. Everyone was busy too, playing league games. But it's not like we did have available time and we did not want to play," said Mahmudullah.

"The thing is that, if we have proper time to rest and opportunities (to play)- we are ready to play because we want to play- does not matter if it's domestic or international matches," he added.

He also gave his thoughts on the improvements in NCL stating that the competitiveness has increased to a greater extent as all the domestic players are trying their level best more than ever before to get into the national team setup.

"I think, there was a good difference (than earlier). I think everyone is trying harder than before. Whether it's batting or bowling - everyone is working hard. That is the main thing. Sometimes you will perform and sometimes you won't but you have to keep the process active - that is important," he signed off.

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