Defending champions Fortune Barishal coach Mizanur Rahman Babul hoped that Najmul Hossain Shanto would soon regain his form and would also lead the Tigers in this month鈥檚 ICC Champions Trophy.
The national team captain has been on the bench for Barishal, who are scheduled to play their second successive final of the Bangladesh Premier League on Friday.
Shanto last played for Barishal on January 16 against Dhaka Capitals in Chattogram, where he managed to score two runs.
The southpaw began this edition of BPL by suffering a first-ball duck against Durbar Rajshahi while opening the batting with captain Tamim Iqbal.
Shanto scored 56 runs from his five outings at an average of 11.20 while batting at a 119.14 strike rate. His top score came in a losing cause against Rangpur Riders when he made 41 off 30 balls.
Mizanur said that Shanto was left out to fix the team combination.
鈥楽hanto was in the team; we鈥檝e played him at the beginning,鈥� Mizanur told reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday ahead of the BPL final.
鈥榃e have many cricketers in our team who haven鈥檛 played a match. You have got to put the team first; you have got to think about the combination. Maybe that鈥檚 why someone is getting a match and someone isn鈥檛,鈥� added Mizanur.
Tamim also echoed the same thing earlier when asked about Shanto鈥檚 absence.
鈥楾his is very unfortunate,鈥� said Tamim. 鈥業鈥檝e got to admit that we haven鈥檛 been able to give him the chances we should鈥檝e. Because, if you see our team, we鈥檙e finding it hard to sort out the combination. We weren鈥檛 able to do that at all in the first few matches. However, we tried to give him chances.鈥櫬�
Certainly no player wants to sit on the bench without having game time. And if the player happens to be the captain of the national team, it raises concerns.
However, Mizanur believed that Shanto would make a comeback in the Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan and UAE from February 19 to March 9.
鈥楾he formats are different; one is T20, and another is 50 overs. The nature of the format is different. Sometimes players go through off form. Maybe he鈥檚 faced some difficulties while coming to play this format [T20],鈥� he said.
鈥楤ut Shanto is such a cricketer that he will make a comeback at any time. I hope he will be captaining Bangladesh in the upcoming Champions Trophy, and he will lead the team from the front as a batter.鈥�
