Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

“We don’t want to take any risk in the long run because we have plenty of cricket coming up”

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has been ruled out of the Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka, which gets underway on February 12, after fracturing the little finger on his left hand.

Even though Rahim will bat in the ongoing Test match in Chittagong, the national selectors have decided not to risk playing him in the Twenty20 series.

“We have decided not to consider him for the T20s after advice from the physio,” chief selector Faruque Ahmed said. “We don’t want to take any risk in the long run because we have plenty of cricket coming up. But if you ask me whether or not he will bat tomorrow, I would say that we will try through an injection or any other arrangement to give him a temporary relief and make him bat. But we believe that if he gets the rest it will help to ensure his service for the two big events in the future.”

Meanwhile, Ahmed added that Sabbir Rahman and Arafat Sunny have both been included in the Twenty20 squad following some strong performances as of late.

“We have given new players chances in this squad, such as Sabbir Rahman and Arafat Sunny, thinking of the upcoming World T20s,” he said. “Both have proved their ability in the domestic level. Now we want to see how good they are in the international level.”

Bangladesh T20 Squad: Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Shamsur Rahman, Mithun Ali, Mominul Hoque, Shakib Al Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Sohag Gazi, Arafat Sunny, Farhad Reza, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Rubel Hossain, Al-Amin Hossain