Bangladesh Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim turned out to be the fittest Tiger as national team contenders began their preparation for the upcoming home series against India with a two-day fitness test on Wednesday. All the members of the 23-member preliminary squad were present except Rubel Hossain and Sabbir Rahman reported to national team trainer Mario Villavarayan at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Rubel had to face the court for his alleged rape case while Sabbir was attending his ailing father.
Mushfiq, often hailed as the most hard-working cricketer in the national set-up recorded 11.9 points to top the beep test while the second position was grabbed by Shuvagata Hom, who managed to score 11.6 points.
Uncapped Liton Kumar came third with 11.5 points.
The opening day session was divided into four categories that began with the skin fold test at the academy premises. It was followed by the movement competency test
and jumping test for the Tigers.
The fitness session in the opening day was concluded with the beep test where the wicket-keeper batsman toppled every individual.
Trainer Villavarayan said that he was impressed with the outcome and whatever they achieved in the opening day.
‘Mushfiq is a hard-working guy and the way he keeps himself fit can be taken as an example for others,’ Villavarayan told New Age.
‘It’s always good to see someone maintaining such a work ethic,’ he said.
‘It was just some testing to see where the individual players are because we haven’t done any fitness because of the World Cup and the Pakistan series soon afterwards.
‘Taking into consideration that we have had a lot of cricket I am satisfied but there’s still a lot of work to do,’ he said.
Villavarayan added that he was happy with the change in attitude in the Tigers dressing room.
‘It is almost a year since I have been here and I am very happy with the change in attitude and their training habits over the last year,’ he said.
‘It is going to be another busy year for us till the 2016 World Twenty20,’ said the Sri Lankan.
Villavarayan did not rule out the chance of Mashrafee bin Murtaza or Taskin Ahmed making a Test return, though both of them are nursing their respective injuries that had prevented them from taking part in the longer version cricket.
‘They have got to first play domestic cricket BCL [Bangladesh Cricket League] kind of cricket and then take from there,’ said Villavarayan.
‘We can’t just put them from playing one-day cricket to playing Test cricket like that. They need to get their bodies used to four day cricket first,’ he said.
-With New Age input
