Mahmudullah was disappointed with Australia’s strict bio-bubble protocols for T20I series.
Bangladesh T20I captain Mahmudullah was “very disappointed” that the hosts have lost their key player in Mushfiqur Rahim due to Australia's “stringent” demands regarding the bio-secure bubble for the upcoming five-match T20I series starting on Tuesday, August 3 in Dhaka.
Mushfiqur will miss the upcoming T20I series against Australia after he failed to join the rest of the squad in time for the 10-day quarantine in Dhaka having returned home from Zimbabwe due to family reasons.
Recently, Mushfiqur came in contact with his parents who had tested positive for COVID-19 and was unable to make the quarantine deadline, thanks to Australia’s strict protocols, as they wanted all the players inside the bio-bubble for at least 10 days before the T20I series started.
Notably, the quarantine was set to begin on July 20, but both team Bangladesh and Australia were not able to arrive in Dhaka by that date, as they were playing in Zimbabwe and West Indies respectively.
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Then, it was decided to keep the players inside a secure bio-bubble on their tours and count it towards their 10-day quarantine time in Dhaka and when Rahim contacted his team on July 22 it was too late as both teams have already spent a part of their quarantine period in Harare and the West Indies.
As Bangladesh will already be without Liton Das and Tamim Iqbal due to the quarantine requirements, Rahim wasn't also allowed to join the team now due to the same reasons for the home series, which left Mahmudullah very disappointed, but confident of the good show against Australia.
Mahmudullah said at a press conference before 1st T20I: “Mushfiq is definitely one of our most crucial players, and I am personally very disappointed at not having him in the side for this series. But, look, being a player, it's not in our hands. The aim is to play good cricket and do well in terms of the results.”
He signed off, “We are not worrying about it too much, because it's not an issue we can do anything about. What has happened has happened. The only objective is to start and end the series well.”
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)