Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief selector Minhajul Abedin, on Tuesday (October 15), made it clear that the paceman Mustafizur Rahman will have to prove his match fitness in the ongoing National Cricket League to get a place in Bangladesh’s Test squad for the upcoming India tour.

Having had injury issues throughout his career, the left-arm pacer has always been in and out when it comes to the longer format of the game.

However, Mustafizur wasn’t selected for one-off Test against Afghanistan in September, as the national selectors wanted to save him for the India Tests, but now his participation in the two-match Test series is also in doubt as he has to fulfill the fitness requirements of the team trainers and coaches.

He was not called for the first round of the NCL, as Mustafizur is likely to feature for Khulna Division in the second round starting from October 17.

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Abedin told reporters, “He (Mustafizur) will have to prove his fitness in the NCL game to be considered for the upcoming Test series against India. The physio had given us some guidelines. He was supposed to play from the very first match. However, because he has some minor problem with his ankle, he was not able to take the full load and therefore, was unable to play the first match (of the NCL).”

He continued, “He is in the recovery phase now. We have to assess how many overs he can bowl. I have been given a guideline that he cannot bowl more than 15 overs (per day) in the upcoming match and so we will consider that and subsequently assess his fitness during the four-day games.”

The chief selector also made it clear that Mustafizur's selection for the India Test would be purely the team management's call, as he is still struggling to prove his fitness of playing red-ball game consistently.

Abedin signed off by saying, “This is completely the decision of team management. We don't work in the field. There is fitness trainer, bowling coach, who will judge whether he can bowl in back-to-back matches and how many overs he can bowl.”

(With Cricbuzz Inputs)