Sports Desk

A Bangladesh Cricket Board official said on Wednesday that they are bringing back pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman from the Indian Premier League as they want him to be ‘fresh’ in the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled in USA and West Indies in June.

The BCB on Monday extended Mustafizur’s stay in the IPL for one more day so that he can be available for Chennai Super Kings’ game against Punjab Kings on 1 May and later, the pacer is expected to arrive for the home series against Zimbabwe.

“If we bring Mustafizur, it does not imply we will make him play in the Zimbabwe series. We won’t give him much workload and lessen his pressure. The World Cup is a big tournament and before going to such a tournament, he needs to adjust,” BCB’s Cricket Operations Chairman Jalal Yunus told reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

“I need him and we want fresh Mustafizur,” he said.

In the recent past, former national skipper and current BCB director Akram Khan told the media that Mustafizur as well as Bangladesh will benefit if he plays for Chennai.

“To tell the truth, the more matches he (Mustafizur) plays for Chennai, he will benefit personally and Bangladesh will also benefit. He can learn a great deal by playing there, compared to participating in the Zimbabwe series," Akram, the former BCB cricket operations chairman, told the media on 15 April.

However, Jalal, who replaced Akram as BCB cricket operations chairman, hardly looked to be interested in echoing the same sentiment as he insisted that Mustafizur, who has taken 10 wickets in five games in the ongoing meet so far, has nothing to learn from IPL.

“Mustafizur has nothing to learn from the IPL. He has passed the age to learn. On the other hand, other players of the IPL can learn from him,” he said.

“It (staying in IPL) will not benefit Bangladesh, rather if they can have Mustafizur, it will benefit other players (of IPL). IPL is a game of only four overs (for a bowler). But do you know how much load they have to take?”

Following the five-match series against Zimbabwe scheduled on 3-12 May, Bangladesh are scheduled to play a three-match T20I series against USA on 21-25 May to get acclimatized to the conditions of USA.

The tourists will depart on 16 May for USA keeping in mind about getting adapted to the weather and conditions as two of their four group stage games at the showpiece event are in that country.

Bangladesh have played only two T20Is in USA before - against West Indies in Florida in 2018.