Bangladesh's dilemma over whether to give the wicket-keeping job only to experienced Mushfiqur Rahim or talented Nurul Hasan Sohan has found a solution by splitting the position between them in the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand.
Russel Domingo, Tigers' head coach, has said both Mushfiqur and Sohan will share the wicket-keeping in the five-match series starting from September 1.
Mushfiqur was out of action during the T20I series against Zimbabwe. He also missed the five-match T20Is home series against Australia.
Now he is back, but his place in the XI as a designated wicketkeeper is no longer assured, as per a UNB report.
Mushfiqur is considered Bangladesh's best batsman in every format of international cricket. But a popular belief is he could be better as a batsman only if he gives up his keeping gloves.
The 34-year old batsman never accepted the idea. He has always been rigid to hand over the position to someone else.
His position as a wicket-keeper came to serious scrutiny when Sohan made it to the playing XI after a long gap between his latest comeback and the last international fixture.
Sohan came in and proved his mettle once again as a wicket-keeper, which left Domingo in a state to find out a solution to the problem of selecting from between Mushfiqur and Sohan.
"Sohan will keep wicket in the first two games. The plan is to split wicket-keeping duties in this particular series, make it two games each and make a decision in the fifth game. I think it is important to have those options covered," Domingo told a virtual press conference on Monday when an inevitable question was finally raised.
Mushfiq has always been the first choice wicket-keeper to the coaches of the Bangladesh national team after the retirement of his predecessor Khaled Mashud despite not being the best in the country. His ability as a batsman has played a big role behind this stance of the coaches.
But over the last few years, with the emergence of Liton Das, who is known as a better keeper than Mushfiq, Bangladesh is facing a never-ending conundrum to decide who keeps the wicket.
And now, the dilemma has been intensified with Sohan, the best keeper of the country in popular opinion, made comeback to the national team.
Bangladesh management is also sweating over the decision of opening positions. Tamim Iqbal, arguably the number one opener of Bangladesh, is out of the setup due to an injury, which brought three- Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das and Mohammad Naim- in the contention.
"Liton is back in the squad. I will need to sit with the selectors over the next day to find what the XI is going to be. We have three guys who can open the batting - Soumya, Liton and Naim. With the selection panel, we will make a decision in the next 24 hours," Domingo said in this regard.
Bangladesh coach also said the competition that the team is in about selecting the best opening pair is good.
