On the completion of his 15 years of international career, the 33-year-old veteran Bangladesh cricketer Mushfiqur Rahim has revealed his disappointments during cricket career.
Mushfiqur Rahim made his international debut on 26th May 2005 during the Lord’s Test against the hosts England. He has played 70 Tests, 218 ODIs and 86 T20Is where the right-handed batsman has scored 4413 runs, 6174 runs and 1282 runs respectively. He is currently Bangladesh’s second-most run-scorer in international cricket.
Talking about his disappointment in the international career, Rahim named the ICC World T20 2016 match against India (at Bengaluru) and 2018 Guyana ODI against the hosts West Indies.
Rahim told Cricbuzz, “The other disappointments have been the World T20 match against India (Bangalore, 2016) and the second ODI against the West Indies (Guyana 2018). If we had won that ODI we would have won the series – although we won the next match, if we could have won that (second game) it would have been a white-wash.”
The first one was the Super 10 stage match of the ICC World T20 2016, where Bangladesh needed 11 runs to win in the final over. Rahim hit two successive fours to the Indian pacer Hardik Pandya and Bangladesh were only two runs away from the victory while they still had three balls left. It was that match where Rahim made early celebration and Bangladesh lost three wickets in the last three balls without adding any runs and surprisingly lost that match by just one run.
The 2018 Guyana ODI was the second game of the three-match ODI series between the hosts West Indies and the visitors Bangladesh. In the final over of that match, Bangladesh needed eight runs to win but the set batsman Rahim lost his wicket on the first ball of that over. Bangladesh finally lost that game by three runs. Though the visitors won that ODI series by the 2-1 margin, they missed out the opportunity to whitewash.
I don’t think that playing the IPL can be bigger than representing my country: Mushfiqur Rahim
Mushfiqur Rahim hasn’t any regret for missing the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he feels that representing his country is bigger than this cash-rich franchise tournament. However, he praised the IPL by calling it “one of the biggest T20 leagues in the world”, and he will definitely play if he gets an opportunity in this tournament in future.
Rahim added, “No, I don’t have any regrets. I don’t think that playing the IPL can be bigger than representing my country. I think IPL is definitely one of the biggest T20 leagues in the world and all the top-class players of the world play there. So I would’ve considered myself fortunate enough to play in such a tournament. I could definitely take my game to a higher level, sharing the dressing room with legends. If I get an opportunity then, of course, I’ll play. And if I don’t get then honestly, I will never regret it.”