Bangladesh veteran batter Mushfiqur Rahim will not take part in his team's Asia Cup Super Four match against India on September 12. Rahim will continue to stay with his newborn child and family. It is an extension of leave granted by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to the middle-order batter.
“Mushfiqur has informed us that his wife is still recovering, and he needs to be by her side and with their children at this time. We fully understand his situation and have decided to permit him to skip the game," BCB Cricket Operations Chairman Mohammed Jalal Yunus said in a statement.
Mushfiqur returned to Bangladesh mid-tournament to witness the birth of his second child. He was expected to join the Shakib Al Hasan-led side in Colombo for the match against India. However, considering it would be a dead rubber, Rahim decided to stay back.
Rahim has scored 131 runs from four games in the tournament. He is Bangladesh's leading run-scorer in ODI Asia Cup history with 830 runs from 25 games at an average of 36.08 including two centuries and three fifties.
Bangladesh are out of contention to reach the ODI Asia Cup 2023 final after losing to Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the Super Fours stage. India have already qualified for the final. The winner of the Pakistan vs Sri Lanka match on September 14 will go up against Rohit Sharma-led India at the same venue on September 17.
In the absence of a few injured players and Mushfiqur, Bangladesh's in-form batter Towhid Hridoy wants his side to sign off on a high.
"We are not thinking about what we have passed and gone through and looking forward to the upcoming assignment. As we have a game against India we will try to finish the tournament on a good note. We need to rectify the mistakes that we have made (in the previous games) and return home with a good result by overcoming our mistakes,” Hridoy told the reporters in Colombo on September 13.
Hridoy also said that it will be a big challenge in the absence of Mushfiqur.
"No Mushfiq bhai, of course it will be a challenge for us because he is an experienced player. We, the rest of us, or who will play in his place will try to recover it as much as possible," he added.
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