Mushfiqar welcomed the new year with jhalmuri!

The Dhaka Times Desk Going to Zimbabwe to find panta-hilsa! And anyway, finding pantha-hilsa is a very difficult task. So, instead of running there, the Mushfiqs celebrated the New Year with the Jhalmuri they had brought with them from the country. The Bangladesh team is in a very cheerful mood before the Test in Harare today or tomorrow.


"Practice is taking place every day at the Harare Sports Ground. Apart from Tamim Iqbal, no one else in the team has injury-related problems. Everyone is now looking forward to the first Test.' Mushfiqur's team manager Tanjib Ahsan Sa'd himself told the media on the phone from Harare, Zimbabwe, that jhalmuri was the most attractive item on the cricketers' New Year's menu. But this year's Zimbabwe series menu has some more interesting menu for the cricketers. For example, if he does well in this series, Shakib can overtake South Africa's Jacques Kallis to regain the number one all-rounder's place in the Test rankings. At the moment, Kallis' points 374, Shakib's points 371, Shakib's all-round performance in the two Test series can take him to the top in the Test all-rounder ranking, although there are still doubts about Shakib's bowling in the first Test. Shakib did not play any more matches after the Test series against the West Indies last November. He is not bowling in the nets even though he is fit right now after knee surgery. In Harare, he is only practicing batting in the net. According to the team management, Shakib will not pick up the ball in the first test, maybe even in the second test. Shakib can increase his ranking just by batting. At the moment, Shakib's position is 29th in the Test batting list. Tamim Iqbal is in the 31st position after him among Bangladeshis. Mushfiqur's ranking also increased to 37 after scoring two hundred runs in the Galle Test. Along with that, there is an opportunity to increase the ranking among Bangladeshi bowlers. While Shakib Al Hasan is number 15 in the list of the most advanced Bangladeshis. After that, Sohag Ghazi is number 59 in the long distance. Yesterday, the ICC sent an e-mail informing Bangladeshis of the opportunity to increase this ranking. But this series is more important to Zimbabwe than Bangladeshis. Because after returning to the Test arena after overcoming the exile, Zimbabwe still could not take their place in the ICC Test Championship table. They will appear in the list only after the completion of the first Test match starting from April 17. However, upon reaching Harare, Bangladesh coach Shane Jurgensen praised the Zimbabwean team in front of the media there. "Before the match, one has to do some homework about the opponent. That is what we are doing now in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a very strong team at home. They have no chance of being so lightly viewed.' With this statement of Jurgensen, the Zimbabwean daily The Standard headlined 'Bangladesh showing considerable respect to Zimbabwe'. Before this, when a big party came to Bangladesh, it was repeatedly said that, now someone from Bangladesh went abroad and spoke in the same tone.