Fitness, domestic performances to determine Ashraful’s fate

BCB chief selector says that Mohammad Ashraful is not in BCB's plans at the moment and the selectors will have to evaluate his fitness and performances in the domestic circuit for at least a year before they can start thinking of him.

Mohammad Ashraful's five-year ban on playing Bangladesh national team for his involvement in spot-fixing during the 2013 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), officially comes to an end on Monday, August 13. He had been allowed to feature in Bangladesh's domestic competitions since 2016 and with the ban being over tomorrow, he will be eligible to play international cricket and the BPL.

Chief selector Minhazul Abedin reiterated what Ashraful will need, to get back into the national setup but maintained that the cricketer is not in the selectors' mind at the moment.

"Right now, fitness level will be the most important aspect to focus on, the standard being the speed, fitness of the current group of players.

The cricketer was initially banned for eight years but the ban was reduced to five years with the last two years being suspended. In that meantime, many players have been able to cement their position in the national setup. Ashraful, who bats at No. 3 will see steep competition from many of the current crop of players and Minhazul is of the opinion that the batsman will have to perform better compared to others.

"His performance will have to be outstanding compared to the others. The reason being that a lot of players are established in the position where Ashraful bats.

"So, if a player is to make it to the national team, he will get the chance for the position that we are looking to fulfill."

The chief selector however assured that age will not be a factor when picking players. "Age is not the factor. Obviously, he has done well in the past so ofcourse he has the capability to play well.

"Since he has not been in the international area for a while, so he will have play in all the formats in domestic circuit. Let's see how far he can come along in terms of fitness and we can evaluate him after a year," Minhazul said.

Since there is a lot of players in the pipeline, Minhazul confirmed that at this moment they are not thinking of including the diminutive right-hander. Ashraful struck five tons in last seasons Dhaka Premier League (DPL) – becoming only the second batsman to do so. Minhazul reiterated that the team's needs will be the most important when choosing a player for the nation setup.

"Not thinking of it [his inclusion] at the moment since we would also have to think of which formats we want to check his suitability for. We will look at the upcoming domestic circuit performances before thinking about it," he concluded.