Mahidul Islam has been drafted in for Bangladesh’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe later this month after Litton Das failed to shake off a left-calf strain picked up during the recent ODI series in Australia.
“The BCB medical team has assessed his condition and is of the opinion that the batsman will struggle to get match fit for the Test within the time available,” the board confirmed on Friday. With little more than a week before the squad heads to Harare, selectors felt they had run out of wriggle room.
Litton already sat out the 3-0 T20I defeat to Australia, a series in which Towhid Hridoy stepped up as stand-in captain. Head coach Phil Simmons admitted the batting line-up looked thinner without its senior keeper-batter. “You miss his batting, and Litton is class,” Simmons said. “But again, what happens if he gets injured the day before [a big] tournament? We have to play properly, and the batsmen still have to bat even though he can get out on any day. They still have to bat, and today the only person that showed that the pressure didn’t get to him was the captain.”
Bangladesh have been here before. Litton missed last year’s two-match contest in Zimbabwe and the second Test in South Africa the winter before that. On both occasions others filled in; Mahidul’s solitary cap actually came in that Durban Test, so the 26-year-old at least knows what he’s walking into. He will now be the only specialist wicketkeeper in the travelling party, though Mushfiqur Rahim remains an emergency option if tape and twin pads fail.
How does the call-up shift the balance? On paper, not dramatically. Mahidul offers tidy glovework and uncomplicated middle-order runs, but the visitors undoubtedly lose a touch of class at the top. Zimbabwe’s seamers, boosted by home conditions that tend to zip around in the morning, will not be sorry.
Squad in full
Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), Shadman Islam, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Tanzid Hasan, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahidul Islam (wk), Taijul Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Hasan Mahmud, Towhid Hridoy, Amite Hasan, Robiul Haque.
The group leaves Dhaka next Tuesday, with a three-day warm-up pencilled in ahead of the 27 June start. Plenty of time, in theory, for Mahidul to reacquaint himself with the red ball—and for the rest to work out how to plug that Litton-shaped gap.
