Bashar Reaffirms Faith in Rana Despite Injury Disappointment

Bangla Press Desk: Injured pace sensation Nahid Rana has been at the centre of discussion in Bangladesh cricket over the last few weeks after being ruled out of the all-important tour of Australia, where the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side will play a two-Test series after 23 years.

Rana, whose workload has been carefully managed since the start of his international career, suffered a side strain during the second T20 International against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, an injury that has ruled him out for eight to 10 weeks.

The selectors have since come under criticism for including Rana in the relatively less important white-ball series in Zimbabwe, a decision that eventually cost Bangladesh one of their premier weapons for the marquee Test series against Australia.

Chief selector Habibul Bashar Sumon addressed the issue in detail on Monday when asked about the criticism surrounding Rana's injury.

"Whenever we select a player—not just Nahid Rana, but also Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, or even Towhid Hridoy, who has been dealing with a tennis elbow problem for quite some time, we always seek an assessment from the medical department. We also evaluate reports from the team management and those responsible for workload management and player injury monitoring. We ask for a report on who is available and who is not," Bashar said.

"As for Nahid Rana, we have always been very careful with his workload management. Nowadays, workload management is not just something people talk about. As you know, players wear GPS trackers, so everything is tracked. Everyone's workload is monitored, and based on those reports, decisions are made regarding which matches a player will play, how many matches he will play, and which series he will be available for. This process applies to everyone, not just Nahid Rana. It is the same for Taskin and all our fast bowlers," he added.

Bashar then explained how Rana's workload was managed during the recently concluded Zimbabwe tour, where the pacer was rested for the one-off Test in Harare before featuring in the first two of the three-match One Day International series at the same venue.

"If you look at Nahid Rana's recent schedule, we did not play him in every match against Zimbabwe. He played the first two ODIs, then had a week's break, and then played two T20Is. According to the workload management plan, he was available for the Test match. Even then, as an extra precaution, because the Australia series is so important for us, we did not play him in the Test," he said.

"We had already explained earlier why we did not field our three regular fast bowlers in that Test. According to the workload management reports and the physiotherapists' assessments, all of them were fit to play Test cricket. Even so, as an additional precaution, we decided not to play those three fast bowlers in the Test," he added.

Bashar acknowledged that Bangladesh could have rested Rana completely during the white-ball leg of the tour but insisted that there were sound workload management reasons behind the decision to play him.

"He was fine for the ODI series, and if you look at it, he played two out of the three ODIs and then one T20I before feeling pain in the second T20I. I think it was unfortunate. Of course, we could have chosen not to play him. The ODI series was not part of the World Championship, and the T20I series was not part of an immediate International Cricket Council event either, with the next T20 World Cup still about two years away. So we could have rested him," he said.