‘Need to make sure we keep Mustafizur Rahman fit’ – Courtney Walsh

Courtney Walsh is not pleased at having to play the ongoing three-match Twenty20 International series against Afghanistan in Dehradun without Mustafizur Rahman.

Rahman was originally named in the squad for the series and joined the Bangladesh team’s pre-tour camp before news of him having cracked the big toe on his left foot emerged and he was omitted from the squad. Rahman had reportedly picked up the injury during his stint with Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League 2018.

“It’s a cause of concern for me. It’s the second time he has come back from the IPL with an injury,” Walsh was quoted as saying by The Times of India on the sidelines of the T20I series, where his team lost the opening game by 45 runs. Rahman, Bangladesh’s pace spearhead, had been injured in the 2017 edition of the IPL too, when he was a part of Sunrisers Hyderabad.

“We need to make sure we keep him fit and make him stronger because he is young, talented and has everything to offer,” continued Walsh. “We need to get his mind right and get his bowling up to the standards he can be.

“We get an idea of the workload once he comes back. At the end of the day, the player himself got to own that responsibility because you are working for two different environments.”

Walsh stressed that Rahman should have intimated the team management about the injury at the right time. “We didn’t know about his injury. That made it more frustrating. Had we known about his injury earlier, we could have done something to get him back on the park quicker. He came to play a practice game. The message has been sent to him. He has to communicate through the right channel,” said Walsh.

The West Indian legend was, however, accepting of the fact that players like Rahman needed to play as much cricket as possible, and the main focus was on managing his workload right and creating enough of a pool of pacers to cover for the absences of the frontline players and also keep the seniors under pressure.

“For any format of cricket to thrive, fast bowling is important,” said Walsh. “Any exciting fast bowler comes, people would want to go and watch him. I am also concerned is that we need to have pitches that will help these fast bowlers so that we have that excitement going. It’s important for players to play as much cricket as they can.

“We need to make a strong pool that will keep the seniors under pressure. The only concern is to get Mustafizur back in the park. Once he is back we will see where we require him more and how we manage him.”

The second game, which Bangladesh must win to keep the series alive, will take place on Tuesday 5 June.