|| CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh national team head coach Russel Domingo clear air about Mahmudullah and Mustafizur Rahman ahead of their lone Test match against Zimbabwe.

Bangladesh will be starting the full-fledged series against Zimbabwe with a solitary Test, set to start from today.

Domingo said that national team fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman will not play the next match until he improves his technical sides while added that Mahmudullah needs to consider his future of playing longer version cricket.

On February 16, when Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced their squad for the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, Mustafizur’s name was read twice by many readers-- but the biggest bombshell came in when Riayd’s name was actually missing in the squad.

Since the last Test match against Pakistan, there were rumours that Mahmudullah future in longer version is in serious doubt and during the pre-match press conference on Friday, national team head coach made the air clearer as Russel left the ball in Riayd’s court saying that the decision is in Riayd’s hand whether or not he wants continue in longer version format.

“It’s not up to me to tell a player to stop playing. A player who has played for as long as he did, deserves the right to decide whether he is finished trying to play for his country,” Russel told in the press conference.

“At the moment he is out of the team and I’ve put it to him to consider his future because I see him as very much an integral part of our white ball cricket,”

“Riyad is adamant that he wants to fight for his spot back into Tests. He has played 49 Tests and been a fantastic performer for Bangladesh. It’s good to have that sort of determination and fight to get back into the team,” he added.

“In white ball cricket he is one of our main players but full credit to him for wanting to come back to Tests,” Russel said.

In terms of Mustafizur, the most prolific bowler for Bangladesh in last couple of years, was not included in national team last series against Pakistan for failing to keep his performances consistent.

But the bowler returned into the national team squad after performing well in the second round of Bangladesh Cricket League.

Despite returning to the national team squad after India series, the pacer only returned to work on some technical areas with Tigers new bowling coach Ottis Gibson as his exclusion from the longer version match was assured by Russel during the pre-math press conference.

“I don’t think Mustafiz is ready to play the Test matches until he does some technical work which allows him to bring the ball back in to the right-handed batsman. Getting him back in to the squad is the start of that process so that he can work with our new bowling coach,” Russel said.