'I am not looking too far,' says Fazle Rabbi ahead of international exposure

Bangladesh cricket team kicked off their preparation camp ahead of the series against Zimbabwe that is set to be played from 21 October. Bangladesh have picked Fazle Rabbi, the left-handed batting all-rounder, as only uncapped player of the Tigers’ armoury. The newbie of Bangladesh team has said that he is not looking too far ahead at this moment.

Rabbi has paved his way to the national side playing in the domestic circuit for a long period of 14 years. Bangladeshi selectors took a rare attempt to call a player who just entered into his thirties. Bangladesh is perhaps the only cricketing country where players aged above 30 are thought to be too old to play cricket.

The scenario has been changing since the players like Mashrafe Mortaza, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudllah doing well entering into their thirties. However, the southpaw is not bothered with his age as well as he said while talking to the media on Monday: “There are too many talks about my age, but I am not thinking this way. Being older is nothing to me since I am fit to play and perform well.”

Rabbi scored more than 700 runs in the last edition of Dhaka Premier League, the most competitive domestic cricket league of the country. His prowess in the 50-over format induced Bangladesh selectors to consider him for the national side.

“We need to think about our fitness. It is important to have the good fitness to perform at the highest level of the game. I have always been focused on my fitness, and that started paying me off. I got a call to Bangladesh A team months ago. There was a two-month long fitness camp that helped a lot to gain world-class fitness to play cricket,” Rabbi said about his fitness.

Rabbi played 68 First-class and 80 List-A matches before getting a call for the national side for the first time. With the absence of Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal, Rabbi is all set to gain a Bangladesh cap in the forthcoming series.

As regards his goals for the series, he said: "I am not looking too far at the moment, and I am not thinking too much as well. My main focus will remain to play good cricket and to perform according to the plans in the upcoming series.”