Bangladesh T20I captain Mahmudullah Riyad left everyone stunned in a pre-series press conference on Thursday when he advised a reporter to contact the team management about Mushfiqur Rahim’s omission.

Bangladesh are all set to take on Pakistan in a three-match T20I and two-match Test series beginning on Friday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) left out Mushfiqur for this series. 

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Minhajul Abedin, the chief selector at BCB, said Mushfqur is rested as the Tigers are set to play a lot of longer version cricket in the coming days, and Mushfqiur’s performance is important in those matches. 

Mushfiqur, however, denied that he was rested while talking to a few media outlets. He rather said the selector did not contact him and said anything about resting him. Mushfiqur also said he is taking this move as his first omission from the team in many years. 

“I think it would be good if you ask this question to some from the team management,” Mahmudllah replied to a question regarding Mushfiqur’s omission. “The decision (of omitting Mushfiqur) came from the team management. I’m not willing to say anything about this, but it’s true that we are going to miss him.”

Mushfiqur struggled throughout the just-concluded T20 World Cup where played eight matches and scored only 144 runs with the best of 57 not out. He failed to reach a double-digit score in five matches. 

Along with Mushfiqur, Bangladesh omitted Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das as well. Soumya scored 27 runs in four matches, and Liton scored 133 in eight matches. Bangladesh captain, however, said he is not bothered much about what happened in the World Cup. 

“I don’t want to talk about the World Cup, we rather are focusing on the next match and on this series. It’s more important to me how much we can contribute to the team in this contest than thinking about the World Cup. Pakistan are one of the best teams in the world, so this series is going to be a tough one,” Mahmudullah said.

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Schedule:

November 19, first T20I at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka at 2pm. 
November 20, second T20I at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka at 2pm.
November 22, third T20I at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka at 2pm. 
November 26-30, first Test at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram
December 4-8, second Test at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka

Bangladesh squad for T20I series: 

Bangladesh squad for Pakistan T20Is: Mohammad Naeem, Saif Hasan, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Yasir Ali Rabbi, Mahmudullah Riyad (captain), Nurul Hasan Sohan (wicketeeper), Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Aminul Islam Biplob, Mohammad Shohidul Islam and Akbar Ali (wicketkeeper)