Mohammad Ashraful targets NCL to make a national comeback

Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful targets the upcoming session of National Cricket League (NCL), a first-class cricket league to make his desired comeback to the Bangladesh senior side after more than five years. He was slapped with a ban of five years due to his involvement in match-fixing during the Bangladesh Premier League back in 2013. The ban has reduced to three years and that has come to an end on 13 August 2018. Now, the former the 34-years-old batsman is dreaming for another stint with the national side.

“I have been getting prepared for the upcoming session of NCL since last three months. I wanted to fit mentally and physically before the league kicked off. I have played international cricket for 13 years. So, I know what the fitness level a player needs to play the highest level of cricket.” Ashraful says Wednesday in an interview with reporters at Mirpur.

NCL is a first-class league of eight teams those are based on the different region of Bangladesh. Ashraful will play for the Dhaka Metro region. Players of this team came to Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) headquarter, Mirpur Sher E Bangla National Cricket Stadium to participate in a fitness test This is the very first time when BCB introduces this kind of initiatives to see the fitness level of the players who play in the domestic circuit.

“It as a must needed effort by the board to ensure the best level of fitness for the cricketers. I think it will inspire all cricketers who play in the domestic circle to get better with their fitness. I scored 11.4 in the beep test. It means my fitness level is not too far from an international cricketer.” Ashraful added.

Ashraful hit five List-A centuries during the session of Dhaka Premier League, a 50-over tournament, thus he came in the limelight again to be considered for the national side. But he was banned then for international and franchised based cricket. But Ashraful has passed all kind of punishments and now he is eligible to play any form of cricket around the world.

Mohammad Ashraful took the NCL as his platform to revamp his international career. He says: “all I need to do for having another chance to play for the country is scoring ample runs. I know it and I am prepared well to play big innings in the NCL. Previously, I scored a lot of runs to make comebacks to the national side after losing my place for poor performances. I can do that once again. I have that confidence and the rest is on the hand of almighty.” Ashraful further said.

Mohammad Ashraful played 61 Tests, 177 ODIs, and 23 T20Is for the Tigers. His best innings came in Tests when he scored 190 against Sri Lanka in 2013. In the ODIs his best score is 109. Mohammad Ashraful has 9 centuries in Tests while he touched the three-figures thrice in ODIs.