Desperate to end run drought Mushfiqur returns to practice

DHAKA —Bangladesh senior batsman Mushfiqur Rahim refused to take a long time off from cricket as he returned to the practice today to prepare him for the upcoming assignments.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) gave the national cricketers a three-week break after the completion of the five-match Twenty20 series against New Zealand. To utilize the holiday, some of the cricketers including Taskin Ahmed, Afif Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin and others chose to perform Umrah and had already left the country while other cricketers opted to stay at home comfortably or roaming here and there.

But Mushfiqur, for whom practicing alone is nothing new, chose to come to the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. He batted some times in the net before some fielding and wicket-keeping drills.

Outside the regular practice of the team, this experienced batsman has always been seen to work separately. This time Mushfiqur is taking the matter of preparation more seriously as he has been going through a patchy batting form.

In the last series against New Zealand, only 39 runs came from Mushfiqur's willow in five matches. In two matches he was dismissed for duck. He was even seen to struggle badly in the middle, which is a rare scenario in Bangladesh cricket.

As an extra effort to get the rhythm back before the Twenty20 World Cup, Mushfiqur also decided to have some match practice. He is scheduled to play one-day matches for Bangladesh A team against HP team in Chattogram. The three-match one-day series between Bangladesh A and HP team will be held on September 30, October 2 and 4.  Soumya Sarkar, another player of Twenty20  World Cup squad will also be seen playing one-day matches for the 'A' team.BSS