Mashrafe suffers health scare
Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh captain, credited for leading his side to recent success in limited-overs cricket, was rushed to a hospital on Sunday after he coughed up blood.
According to a report from bdcrictime.com, Mortaza was taken to a hospital but was released after preliminary investigations. He was declared fit and was not admitted.
The report added that the 33-year-old right-arm fast bowler, who has played 36 Tests, 179 ODIs and 54 T20Is for Bangladesh since making his debut in 2001, was not keeping well for the last couple of days and was also due for a check-up.
The official doctor of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Debashish Chowdhury, announced later, “There is nothing serious happened to Mashrafe. He coughed up some blood in the morning and that’s why he went to hospital for checkup. His lungs have been checked and everything is fine now. He won’t have to be admitted in hospital.”
Mortaza led Bangladesh at the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 — a tournament in which his team entered as the sixth-ranked side in the world, and also qualified for the semifinal stage as well.
The Bangladesh captain has been dealing with a fragile knee for a long time, along with other fitness issues.
However, BCB chief Nazmul Hasan said in June that the board will prefer to continue playing Mashrafe ‘as long as he is fit’.
“Let me clear one thing, Mashrafe is just not a player but he is also our ODI captain,’ Nazmul told reporters at SBNS, according to Cricbuzz.
“The way he is leading the side, it is impossible to get a replacement(as captain). There is no alternative to replacing him as a player, too. As long as he (is) fit to play, we won’t drop him,” he added.
Bangladesh’s next assignment will be a two-Test series against Australia at home. While Mortaza has not played in the long format since 2009, his sudden retirement from T20Is earlier in 2017 signalled that his days could be numbered in the 50-over format as well, especially with teams starting to pick up pace on their build-up for the next ICC World Cup in England in 2019.