Bangladesh veteran Mushfiqur Rahim to miss West Indies tour

Mushfiqur Rahim etched his name in history books when he became the first-ever Bangladesh batter to amass 5,000 Test runs after the recently-concluded first Test match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Chattogram. With the game ending in a stalemate in what was a high-scoring contest, Bangladesh would now be hoping to be on the winning side in the second game.

Meanwhile, the Mominul Haque-led side has received a huge setback after it has been reported that Rahim would not be taking part in the upcoming tour of the West Indies. Apart from the veteran wicketkeeper-batter, some of the key players including Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, and Nayeem Islam would also be missing the Test series due to injury concerns.

Mushfiqur will be unavailable for the West Indies tour: Khaled Mahmud

”Yes, he (Mushfiqur) will be unavailable in the West Indies tour as he wishes to perform his Hajj,” said Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud as quoted by Cricbuzz. The report further adds that the veteran cricketer “has already informed the board about his unavailability as he plans to perform a religious pilgrimage.”

Bangladesh will be touring the Caribbean islands for an all-format bilateral series that features two Tests along with three ODIs and three T20Is each. As far as the schedule of this one-month tour is concerned, the first Test match will be played at Antigua on June 16 and the second one at St Lucia on the 24th.

The red-ball series will be followed by the T20Is with the first and second games being played in Dominica on July 2 and 3 respectively while the final match will be contested in Guyana on July 7. The tour concludes with three One Day Internationals that will be played in Guyana itself on July 10, 13, and 16. As of now, Bangladesh would be focusing on the task at hand and that is the second and final Test match of the ongoing home series which will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on May 23.