The Bangladesh Cricket Board has granted NOC to Mustafizur Rahman to play an additional game for CSK which means the Bangladeshi left-arm pacer will feature in CSK’s game against Punjab Kings on May 1.
The Statement
While the BCB has issued an NOC to Mustafizur a statement from one of the board officials has sparked a fresh controversy. Jalal Yunus the Chairman of BCB’s Cricket Operation has said that the fast bowler has nothing to learn in the IPL “Mustafizur has nothing to learn from playing in the IPL. Mustafizur’s learning process is over. Rather, there are many players in IPL who can learn from him. Bangladesh will not benefit from this,” Yunus said, as quoted by Daily Star. Yunus added that the board’s concern is Mustafizur’s fitness as the fast bowler has had injury issues in the past
The Concern
“Our concern is Mustafizur’s fitness. They want to take 100 per cent from him. They don’t have a headache about his fitness, but we do. The reason we are bringing back Mustafizur is not just to play in the Zimbabwe series, but if he is brought here, we will plan him with the workload. But that plan won’t happen if he’s in IPL.”
Apart from his unavailability for the second half of the tournament Mustafizur who is among the top wicket-takers in the tournament so far missed a couple of matches for the team earlier in the tournament as he had to fly back home to get his visa issue sorted for the T20 World Cup 2024 scheduled to take place in West Indies and USA in June
The Impact
Rahaman is the leading wicket-taker for CSK so far having picked up 10 wickets in the season due to his exploits with the ball CSK is in the third spot in the points table with eight points after six games. He along with Sri Lankan fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana have been instrumental in CSK’s success as the duo have picked up wickets in the death over on a regular basis. It would be interesting to see who replaces Mustafizur in the playing XI and what impact would his absence have on the team’s performance