Mushfiqur Rahim struck his eighth Test century and became the first Bangladeshi to pass 5,000 runs as the hosts took the upper hand in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Chittagong on Wednesday. Bangladesh were all out for 465 runs with a first-innings lead of 68 when last man Shoriful Islam was unable to carry on his innings after a blow to the hand while batting.
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Mushfiqur reached his career milestone in the morning session when he nudged Fernando towards fine-leg for two runs, to cheers from a sparse crowd at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
“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,” Mushfiqur said after the day’s play.
“There’ll be a lot of capable players among our seniors and juniors who can reach 8,000 or 10,000 runs.”
Meanwhile, he also added that in Bangladesh people compare him to Sir Don Bradman, but he also faces brickbats when he doesn’t do well.
“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,” Mushfqur said on Wednesday.
The 35-year old right-hander later glanced Fernando for his fourth boundary to bring up his hundred, making the most significant contribution in Bangladesh’s innings on the day with 105 off 282 balls before Embuldeniya bowled him in the third over of the final session.
“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 in 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.”
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