Bangladesh outline month-long recovery period for Mustafizur Rahman

Bangladesh’s youth sensation Mustafizur Rahman has been advised to undergo a month-long recovery routine by national team’s strength and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan in order to recover from the hamstring and ankle injuries he suffered during the 2016 IPL campaign, ESPN Cricinfo reports.

Nicknamed “The Fizz”, Rahman has been making rapid strides in international cricket ever since his dream debut against India in the ODI series at home in 2015 and starred for the David Warner-led Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise which won the ninth edition of the IPL with a closely fought victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The left-arm fast bowler often played through pain to help his side to victory on many occasions and deservedly earned the Emerging Player of the Season award. However, the seemingly non-stop efforts on the cricket field seem to have caught up with the youngster.

While Mustafizur himself had complained of fatigue to his close ones during the IPL, Bangladesh national team physio Baizidul Islam had warned that the pacer will suffer from burnout unless given an immediate rest from all forms of cricket. A further statement that he will be assessed for a two-week period meant that his contract with English county side Sussex was put on hold for the time being with the 20-year-old handed time to rejuvenate and get back to his best.

Revealing the plans he has in store for Mustafizur, Villavarayan stated that the though player will undergo a weekly assessment, a tentative period of one month has been presumed for a full recovery.

"Ideal [time to be fully fit] would be one month," Villavarayan said. "But we will see how he does this week and take it from there. As of today, there's a marginal improvement. It was a long season for him, so we are working on him. We assessed him yesterday and he has improved, and we will assess him again next week and take it from there. He has responded well."

Villavarayan’s comments means Sussex, who have missed Mustafizur’s services for four Royal One-Day London Cup and five NatWest T20 Blast matches already, will be without their overseas acquisition for a further block of six T20s and the rest of the group stage matches of the one-day tournament.

Sussex will be hopeful that Mustafizur can make it to England, latest by the end of July as they seek to progress to the latter stages of the tournaments.