Former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza started practice at Mirpur Thursday ahead of the 50-over edition of the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) amid uncertainty about participation.

The 38-year-old pacer played his last competitive cricket match back in December, 2020. He had been out of cricket since due to his political commitments as a member of Bangladesh parliament.

“Just bowled a few deliveries with a short run-up,” Mashrafe told the media, adding that he has been undergoing a rehabilitation programme. “I have been suffering from a bit of back pain. It will take a little time to get rid of it. But I started slowly.”

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Mashrafe hoped he can start bowling with full run-up by next week.

The veteran bowler will represent Dhaka team in the upcoming edition of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) starting from January 21.

The former captain praised the Test team for their historic win over New Zealand this week. Masrahfe rated it as the biggest win of Bangladesh in cricket so far.

“I don’t like to say it's ‘one of the best wins’, it’s actually the best win to me,” he said. “New Zealand are the champions of the Test. We don’t have our best players in this series. If you keep these things in mind, it was our best win ever.”

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According to Masrhafe, Bangladesh’s pace-bowling unit is flourishing slowly in every format of the game. He said what Ebadot Hossain has done in the first Test against New Zealand was a result of his long struggle.

“If you see our T20Is stats, our pacers have done well there. Test was the format where our pacers struggled for a long time unlike T20Is and ODIs. We have to work harder for that. If you look at Taskin (Ahmed), he has started doing well. Ebadot already displayed what he is capable of. And Rahi (Abu Jayed) has been doing well too. We have to believe them more, and it will eventually help them to become even more effective in Tests.”

After winning the first Test by a big margin of eight wickets, which was Bangladesh’s maiden Test win over New Zealand and first by any Asian Team in New Zealand after 2013, Bangladesh are now gearing up for the second Test which will begin in Christchurch on January 9.