Mahmudullah Riyad is not playing the first warm-up match of the Bangladesh national team ahead of the T20 World Cup which is set to begin on October 17 in Oman.
Bangladesh is set to take on Sri Lanka on Tuesday night, at Bangladesh time 8pm at Abu Dhabi.
Habibul Bashar, the selector of Bangladesh, said the T20 captain has been suffering from slight back pain for a couple of days. So as a precautionary step, he is not playing the first warm-up match.
“He won’t get enough time to rest during the tournament when we have match after match. So we are not taking any risk now. He will not play the warm-up match. We will give him a bit of time,” Bashar told the media.
Mahmudullah, however, might take part in the second warm-up match against Ireland in Abu Dhabi.
While Mahmudulla is not playing the first warm-up match, Mustafizur Rahman might take part in it. The left-handed pacer joined the team after completing this IPL stint for Rajasthan Royals.
The Bangladesh team will return to Oman on October 15 before their first World Cup against Scotland. They will then face the hosts, Oman, and Papua New Guinea.
It is expected that the Tigers would end up as the champions of Group B. If they can successfully play in Round 1, they will meet India, Pakistan, New Zealand, and Afghanistan in Group 2 at the Super 12s round along with the runners up of Group A of Round 1.
BCB had announced the squad for the World Cup early last month. They had included Rubel Hossain and Aminul Islam as the standby players. But in a recent move, the team management excluded Aminul from the touring party but kept Rubel with the team.
Bangladesh also included six players in the squad who has no experience of playing in a World Cup, including U-19 World Cup-winning stars
Source: United News of Bangladesh