Former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza tests COVID-19 positive, in home isolation

Bangladesh's former captain Mashrafe Mortaza has now tested positive for COVID-19. The pacer had been suffering from fever and had taken a test on Friday. Mortaza is currently in home isolation, his brother Morsalin Mortaza informed.

Earlier, former Bangladesh cricketer and elder brother of ODI captain Tamim Iqbal had also tested positive for Coronavirus. Bangladesh's Daily Star newspaper reported that Nafees himself confirmed that he has contracted the deadly virus and is currently in home isolation in Chittagong. Nafees Iqbal a right-handed opening batsman, made his debut for Bangladesh in 2003 but has been out of the national reckoning since 2006. Meanwhile, Pakistan's three cricketers - Shahid Afridi, Taufeeq Umar and Zafar Sarfaraz - have also tested for positive the virus.

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Mortaza hits out at BCB

During his interview with a cricket news website recently, Mortaza went on to reveal that the Bangladesh Cricket Board was rushing to bid him farewell and it was certainly hurting and that was the point according to the veteran all-rounder. He then mentioned that firstly, they had to arrange a match to bid him farewell and it was not a normal match. The former Bangladeshi skipper then added that a normal bilateral series is something and arranging a special match in a hurry is something else.

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Mortaza's illustrious cricketing career

In his almost two-decade illustrious cricketing career between 2001-2020, Mortaza has played 36 Tests, 220 One Day Internationals and, 54 T20Is for Bangladesh. He had retired from the longest format back in 2009 and, the T20I format in 2017. As of now, Mashrafe had played what seems to be his final ODI in March 2020 against Zimbabwe. 

Under his captaincy, Bangladesh has made it to two straight Asia Cup finals in 2016 and 2018 respectively where they went down to India on both occasions. The iconic cricketer has also led the Bangladesh side to the quarterfinals of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and to the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. Coincidentally, it was the Men In Blue that ended their respective ICC campaigns as well.

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