Bangladesh Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim can be rest assured that his captaincy won’t be taken away in 2015, said Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan on Saturday. Mushfiq’s captaincy came under scrutiny during the recently concluded two-match Test series against Pakistan. The decision to bat first in the second Test match where wickets turned out into a batting paradise after an hour in the first day, left the Bangladeshi bowlers helpless and everyone else surprised over his captaincy philosophy.
Pakistan exploited the gift to the fullest and recorded their first win in the series and in the process clinched the Test series after being clean swept in the three match one-day internationals and lone Twenty20 under the helm of Masharfee bin Murtaza.
‘There is no chance of replacing him [Mushfiq] this year,’ Nazmul Hasan told reporters at his residence on Saturday.
‘We don’t have any better option than him,’ said Nazmul.
‘I was in London during the second Test match and after we took fielding instead of batting that also raised questions on my mind.
‘I called Sakib [al Hasan] over phone, though he was not the captain. He told me that it was a combined decision and if the pace bowlers were not injured and we had got early breakthroughs things could have been different,’ said the BCB boss.
Mushfiq was replaced from the captaincy duties of ODI and Twenty20 in September 2014 after his defensive approach was often being criticised.
After replacing him, Mashrafee changed the face of Tigers ODI side with a 5-0 win over Zimbabwe in November in 2014.
Mashrafee followed it up with a World Cup quarter-final finish earlier this year and the 3-0 and 1-0 wins in ODI and Twenty20 series respectively over Pakistan.
In the new split-captaincy era, Mushfiq led Bangladesh to a 3-0 Test series win over Zimbabwe in October-November last year, but the 0-1 loss to Pakistan has again raised questions about his position as the captain.
However, Nazmul believes that instead of chopping the wicket-keeper batsman from the captaincy, time has come to consider whether he is taking extra burden of performing three jobs at a time.
‘I think it is very demanding to continue with all the responsibilities.’
‘To keep wickets for the whole day and then batting along with guiding a unit for five days can be taxing for anyone.
‘Mushfiq is our best batsman but we could not get his batting properly in the last Test match due to his injury during keeping and that harmed us a lot.’
‘If he has to leave any particular aspect than I would suggest it should be his keeping,’ Nazmul said.
-With New Age input
