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.