'New generation bowlers will be inspired by him' - Mashrafe Mortaza questions omission of Mustafizur Rahman from Tests

Fast bowling in Tests, without a doubt, requires a certain level of fitness and resilience. It takes years for a speedster to get mature and lead his country’s bowling force in the longest format. Talking about the shorter formats, a pacer also needs to tweak his strategy while donning the coloured apparel.

Despite the breakthrough of bowlers like Abu Jayed and Ebadat Hossain, Bangladesh is yet to develop a pacer who can lead their pace battery across all formats. Former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza also opened up on the issue and said developing pace bowlers for Test format should be in the top of the team management’s agenda.

We need to tell players about their format as well: Mashrafe Mortaza

According to Mortaza, the board needs to assign specific roles to the pacers and inform them regarding the format they are hoping them to perform.

“My concern is Test cricket because it takes a long time [to develop Test bowlers]. I think it takes a long time and we need to work on it because the players need to be mentally strong to play test cricket for a long time. The players need to work on test match fitness and accuracy as well,” said Mortaza as quoted by Cricfrenzy.

“One or two bowlers is doing well like Abu Jayed Rahi and Ebadat Hossain is very promising but I think we need to have a guideline and tell the players about their format as well. The bowlers who will play in which format need to know it,” he added.

Mortaza also questioned the omission of Mustafizur Rahman from the longer format. According to him, there should be someone who can be recognized as idols for future generations.

“A lot of people say Mustafizur do not need to play Test cricket. I am questioning them how will he be a superstar without playing Test cricket. If Mustafizur does not have 300 Test wicket on his kitty, then a lot of new generation bowlers will not be inspired by him,” said Mortaza, who has donned the Bangladesh jersey in 36 Tests, 220 ODIs and 54 T20Is.