Mashrafe in Shakib and Mahmudullah's team, Gemcon Khulna

Sports

TBS Report
06 December, 2020, 05:50 pm
Last modified: 06 December, 2020, 06:59 pm
The lottery took place at 5 pm at the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) office in Mirpur after the former ODI skipper of Bangladesh passed his fitness test earlier in the morning. 

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza became the latest star to join a star-studded Gemcon Khulna team after a lottery decided which team would get him for the ongoing Bangabandhu T20 Cup on Sunday.

The lottery took place at 5 pm at the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) office in Mirpur after the former ODI skipper of Bangladesh passed his fitness test earlier in the morning. 

 A hamstring injury just ahead of the T20 Cup took Mashrafe out of the players' draft but after making a full recovery, the right-arm seamer is expected to play in Monday's game.

The BCB had earlier kept the door open for Mashrafe by saying that players can later join the teams even if they weren't in the draft.

As more than one team was interested in the 35-year-old, the team was decided via a lottery. 

At first, Fortune Barishal had shown interest in acquiring the services of Mashrafe and after that, Khulna and on Saturday, Minister Rajshahi also showed interest.

And finally, Beximco Dhaka became the fourth team out of five to request the BCB for Mashrafe's acquisition. 

Mashrafe had previously chosen to exclude himself from the BCB President's Cup 50 over tournament prior to the T20 Cup due to his fitness levels not being up to his mark.

He wanted to make his return to competitive cricket with the T20 Cup and had also started training a month ahead of the T20 tournament. 

But running during training led to his injury and after that he was in rest before making a recovery and starting training again last Tuesday. 

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