Mashrafe Mortaza is a legend. There are no ways about it.
Indeed, the pacer has been with the team for so long that he commands some
power certain issues, which includes the players that should be called up by
the selectors.
As a captain, it is only natural for him to have a say over
the selection policy and stated that he will put out his word to the selectors
during the meeting for the final squad.
“The selectors conduct a meeting to pick players for the squad.
I will also suggest them,” said Mashrafe to reporters.
“It is not that I won’t give any suggestion at all. Since there
is no coach right now, [Khaled Mahmud] Sujon and the others are there; they
will sit with the selectors and discuss before announcing the final squad.
“Right now, 32-33 people are training. I have discussed with
Papon about this.”
He then talked about how the tri-nation series and Sri Lanka
T20Is and Test series won’t be that hard, but he also warned against using home
performances to evaluate away tours. Indeed, while Bangladesh might have done
well at home, they are away record isn’t all that great.
And Mashrafe highlighted Bangladesh’s poor showing at South
Africa as an example.
“I don’t think it will be too difficult, especially in the
ODIs because we can’t use one series to judge things.
“We lost 3-0 at New Zealand, but didn’t fall into much
pressure. However, we were terrible in every format in South Africa. Our goal
now is to do the right thing.
“Winning at home won’t help us on foreign pitches because
there is a massive different between home and away conditions.
“We want to win the [tri-nation and Sri Lanka] series at
home, but we can’t mix this with away tours.”
The tri-nation series begins on the 15th of
January and the Test series commences on the 31st January with the
T20I series concluding the whole month of cricket.
