Mushfiqur Rahim Set To Miss Australia T20Is After Missing Quarantine Deadline

Veteran Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim will miss the upcoming five-match T20I series against Australia due to his failure to join the squad in time for ten-day isolation in Dhaka.

The ten-day isolation period was originally set to begin on July 22 which was later brought up to July 20.

However, with the Bangladesh Cricket Team currently in Zimbabwe and the Australians in the midst of a three-match ODI series in the Caribbean, it was impossible for either team to arrive in Dhaka on the said date.

Hence, the Bangladesh Cricket Board and Cricket Australia came to an agreement that as long as the players are in a bio-secure environment in Harare And Bridgetown respectively, it will count towards their isolation period in Dhaka.

As a result, the BCB had asked Mushfiqur Rahim to stay back in Harare despite the fact that he was scheduled to feature in the T20I series against Zimbabwe, which kicked off on Thursday.

Mushfiqur Rahim, who had pulled out of the ODI and T20I series against Zimbabwe citing personal issues, was due to return home after the culmination of the ODI series.

However, with his parents falling sick, he had to return home early, and, hence, he was unable to make the isolation deadline.

When he did report in, on July 22, he was told that it won’t work.

“Mushfiqur (Rahim) wanted to play the series. But he missed the quarantine by a couple of days. His parents are sick, so he had to leave the Zimbabwe tour. But the [10-day] quarantine is part of our agreement with Cricket Australia, so we couldn’t include him. They didn’t agree to Mushfiqur entering quarantine two days after it began. It is disappointing but one can’t do much about these things.” said BCB’s cricket operations chairman, Akram Khan as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

Meanwhile, all the Bangladesh players, who are currently playing in Harare, will return home on July 27. Post their arrival, the players will head straight to the hotel where the match-officials, liaison officials, hotel staff, and drivers are already self-isolating.

Mushfiqur Rahim’s unavailability means that Bangladesh will be without their two senior pros in the five-match T20I series against Australia, which will take place between August 03-09. Rahim joins Tamim Iqbal, who is set to be out of competitive cricket for the next 8 weeks due to a knee injury.

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