Mushfiqur may not keep during India Test

BCB president Nazmul Hassan has indicated that Mushfiqur Rahim may not keep wicket in the solitary Test against India next week. Mushfiqur had sprained his ring finger on his right hand during the Khulna Test against Pakistan in April. Though Mushfiqur played the second Test of that series, he found it difficult to be at his best behind the stumps.

Speaking at a press conference in Mirpur on Monday, Hassan said Mushfiqur would have to take a decision on whether to continue in the three roles of captain, batsman and wicketkeeper. "There was some talk about removing him as captain, but it wasn't done by the cricket board," Hassan said. "If Mushfiqur feels the pressure, he will have to decide on it. He has to take a call on which one he wants. In my opinion the wicketkeeping will come up for consideration first.

"As far as I know, he wants to keep wickets. But since he hasn't fully recovered from injury ahead of this [India] series, there is some doubt about it. He may not keep wickets."

Mushfiqur has kept wickets in the 21 Tests he has captained so far and averaged 38.85 with the bat, which is better than his career batting average of 32.34. It is a similar situation for him in T20s as well but not in ODIs, where his batting average of 31.37 is better than his average as captain and wicketkeeper - 29.36. But after being removed as ODI captain in September last year, Mushfiqur has averaged 56.23 in 14 ODIs with a century and six fifties, while keeping wicket too.

Bangladesh have Anamul Haque and Litton Das as wicketkeeper-batsmen in their 23-man preliminary squad for the India series. Anamul has been predominantly considered an ODI batsman in his short international career thus far because he has an average of just 9.12 in four Tests in 2012 and 2013. But the last time he kept wickets in a first-class match was more than a year ago.

Litton was in the Bangladesh squad for the two Tests against Pakistan after an impressive show in the 2014-15 domestic season. He was the top-scorer in the National Cricket League, one of the two first-class competitions. He has kept wickets in four first-class matches this year.