Bangladesh Cricket News: Ashraful unpicked in BCL draft

Mohammad Ashraful, the former captain of the Bangladesh national side, remained unpicked in the draft of Bangladesh cricket league (BCL) which is the second biggest First-Class cricket league in the country. The contest is all set to commence from 21 November.

The right-handed batsman was in a bad patch during the National cricket league (NCL) which is the biggest First-Class contest in Bangladesh. Ashraful played the league for Dhaka Metropolis and managed only 253 runs in six matches in an average of 25.30. This lean performance played a big role in his unexpected fate of not being picked. Besides scoring 250-plus runs, he took 11 scalps with his off-spin, but that proved to be insufficient.

The former captain has been participating in domestic cricket since last three seasons after serving a ban of five years for his involvement in the match-fixing scandal during the Bangladesh Premier League back in 2013. He has been announced eligible to play at any level of cricket since 13 August 2018 and the right-handed batsman is trying to get another national comeback.

But, his desire seems to be unfulfilled after his suboptimal performance in the middle. Remaining unpicked in the BCL draft is another blow to his career.

“It is surely disappointing to miss the BCL. I couldn't perform well in the last NCL. I think this may be the reason for anyone not picking me for BCL,” Ashraful said while expressing his opinion to Cricbuzz.

Ashraful had started his career back in 2001 with a record-breaking century in his debut Test against Sri Lanka. But, the right-handed middle-order batsman failed to maintain his amazing start as he always struggled to show consistency at the highest level of the game.

The former Bangladesh captain played a total of 261 international matches for the Tigers. He scored 6655 runs across the formats with nine centuries and 30 fifties to his name. However, the talented batsman is now at the cliff-edge of his career.