Jamal can still deliver for Bangladesh: Cabrera

Bangladesh football team head coach Javier Cabrera said that captain Jamal Bhuiyan still has a lot to offer despite not getting regular game time for his Argentine club and rarely playing the whole match for the national team in recent times.

Since making his debut for the Bangladesh team in August, 2013, Jamal was a regular feature in the playing eleven and rarely got substituted till 2022.

But since 2023, the defensive-midfielder has only twice stayed on the pitch for the entire duration of the game, has been substituted 10 times and brought in as a second half substitute once.

Most recently, he got substituted in the second half of Bangladesh's two FIFA World Cup pre-qualifier matches against the Maldives and the qualifier matches against Australia and Lebanon.

Jamal has also been out of competitive football for nearly three months and has mostly been cooling his heels for his club Sol de Mayo – a third-tier club in Argentina.

Still, Jamal was named in the 15-man squad for Bangladesh's two FIFA World Cup qualifiers matches against Palestine this month, as Cabrera believes the 33-year-old is still warrants a place in the team.

"He [Jamal] has been in training and has played friendly games for Sol de Mayo. We know he is fit. He lacks in competitive game time but that's because of the situation of the league in Argentina," Cabrera told the reporters at a press briefing yesterday.

"I am convinced that Jamal can still deliver for the team as captain. He is the most experienced player and we didn't have any doubt about naming him in the list," he added.

The Spanish coach also believed that despite not being on the pitch for the entire match, Jamal is still the ideal candidate for captaincy.

"He has been a great professional; he is a very good example. I said before that a lot of young players in the squad have a good reference of Jamal to follow," Cabrera said.

Meanwhile, Jamal arrived in Dhaka in the early hours of Thursday. He is expected to join Abahani Limited from the second leg of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) after severing his contract with Sole de Mayo, said Abahani manager Nazrul Islam.

The team will leave for Saudi Arabia for a two-week preparation camp on March 2 ahead of the Palestine matches on March 21 and 26.