Mushfiqur Rahim Azad Majumder . Chittagong
Wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim will join a select group of Bangladeshi cricketers when he leads the national team in the first Test match against West Indies in Chittagong today.
With the toss in this match he will be sworn in as the eighth Test captain of Bangladesh after Naimur Rahman, Khaled Mashud, Khaled Mahmud, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Ashraful, Mashrafee bin Murtaza and Sakib al Hasan.
And he could not have asked for a better venue than the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium to achieve the feat.
The ground has proved to be a lucky venue for Bangladesh in the recent times as they won their last four one-day matches at this ground and have a better win-defeat ratio with seven victories against five losses.
But when it comes to Test cricket, the ground is particularly lucky for Mushfiq, who hit his maiden Test century against India here last year before nearly repeating the feat against England.
The England game was Bangladesh’s last Test in this venue and Mushfiq made it memorable for himself with two innings of 79 and 95 runs. His 167-run stand with Junaed Siddique in the fourth innings against the likes of Graeme Swann is fifth highest for Bangladesh on any wicket, though he could not stave off a huge defeat.
Never had he imagined he would return here for the next Test as captain but it is now a reality.
Naturally Mushfiq will be eying to carry his luck against West Indies in Chittagong.
‘It is a proud moment for everyone. A player has dreams of playing for the national team and then comes the captaincy. It is a huge honour,’ said Mushfiq ahead of his debut as Test captain.
‘This is my favourite ground. I have a century, two fifties and two 40-plus innings here and I like batting here,’ he added.
Mushfiq made a winning debut as captain in the Twenty20 in Dhaka when he led the side from the front. His one-day debut did not produce the same result, though he managed to take some glory away from the West Indies dismissing them for 61 runs in the final game for a eight-wicket win.
Now it remains to be seen how he does as Test captain.
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