Former Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim is about to relinquish wicketkeeping duties and focus solely on his batting in order to prolong his Test match career. The move comes just ahead of the next month's two World Test Championship fixtures in India where Rahim would definitely be looking to pile on a lot of runs for his team. 

The 32-year-old has had 103 catches and 31 stumpings in his 67-Test career for Bangladesh but now feels his workload requires careful management. Mushfiq plays all three formats for the national side. 

It is also understood, he has informed head coach Russell Domingo about his decision and Domingo, on his part, has agreed to it. 

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"I am not interested to keep wickets in Test," Rahim was quoted as saying by ICC. "Now there are lots of games in the upcoming days and I play in all formats. Apart from international cricket, I play in DPL [Dhaka Premier League] and BPL [Bangladesh Premier League]. Considering everything, I think it is getting a bit overloaded."

However, if the record is to go by; Rahim averages only 24.47 in the 12 Tests where he hasn't been a designated wicketkeeper. The consistency goes up by more than 12 runs per innings in the 55 Tests where he has actually kept wickets with 3,515 runs. 

"I want to perform for a long time and because I am playing across formats I needed to think," he added. "I did not have any severe injury during the last five years but at the same time, I did not take a substantial amount of rest. In the future, such scenarios should not arise that I have to take rest in one or two series."

"So instead of that [missing series for rest] the only thing that I can do is minimize my workload and that is only possible by not keeping in Test and that's why I have taken this decision."

(Inputs from ICC)