When Mushfiqur Rahim scores a century his fans back in Bangladesh compare him to Don Bradman, when he doesn’t, things get worse, which in turn affects the on-field duties of the national team.
In the ongoing Test against Sri Lanka, Rahim became the first Bangladeshi cricketer to breach the 5000-run mark in the longest format of the game.
“Only in Bangladesh, I have seen that people compare me to Bradman when I score a century, but then when I don’t score runs, I feel like digging a hole for myself. I am one of the senior players so we are not going to be around for long. But this is becoming a culture, so the younger players need the support. If I have to spend so much time tackling these things off the field, our on-field duties get affected”, he told on Wednesday.
“It is a great feeling to become the first Bangladeshi to reach 5,000 Test runs. But I am sure I am not the last one. There’ll be a lot of capable players among our seniors and juniors who can reach 8,000 or 10,000 runs,” he said,
“My goal (in my debut Test) was to play the second Test (laughs). I didn’t do well on my first Test. Being a ‘keeper-batsman, I always gave priority to Tests. You are judged by how many big hundreds you get in the format. I always wanted to play Tests for a long time so that I can make big achievements as an individual and a team. There’s no limit to success, but I am very happy with my achievement”, he added.