Mushfiq’s on-field rage raises eyebrows

Mushfiqur Rahim, the Beximco Dhaka captain was not in good spirits in the field, despite his team winning the Eliminator against Fortune Barishal by nine runs in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup on Monday.

Social media was abuzz with images and videos of Mushfiq aiming the ball at Nasum Ahmed during fielding and most of the comments were calling his behaviour unprofessional and unbecoming of a team's captain. 

There were two occasions when Mushfiq made this gesture of wanting to hit Nasum with the ball in his hand.

The first was while the off-spinner was bowling and Mushfiq ran over to the non-striker's end to save a run when Nasum wasn't backing up behind the stumps.

And the second was when Mushfiq took the catch of key batsman, Afif Hossain, running towards short third man, where Nasum was also stationed and both players almost collided with one another.  

At the post-match presentation, Mushfiq was asked about the incident with Nasum and Mushfiq made it clear that things needed to improve: Yeah, there are lots of areas to improve on as a person and as a team.

Mushfiq also was unhappy with the way the team fielded overall but gave credit to the bowlers: "Really disappointed about the fielding but the bowlers chipped in and created opportunities. Thankfully we won the match and can continue improving going forward."

The wicket-keeper also gave credit to the way his side batted in the first innings and believed that there were no demons in the pitch: "The wicket was pretty good to bat on. 160-plus was a very good score. Tough to chase in a knockout match."

Barishal will now face the loser of the Qualifier between Gazi Group Chattogram and Gemcon Khulna and only time will tell if Mushfiq's actions had a positive or negative impact on his team.