‘Overplayed’ Shoriful at risk of breaking down?

When the Bangladesh team began their two-day training ahead of the first Test in Sylhet, pacer Shoriful Islam was in Dhaka, with the physicians trying to determine whether he was fit enough to play the match.

Shoriful, declared injury-free, joined the team on the day before the Test but didn't bowl at all at training, making it seem that the pacer would be rested for the match. However, head coach Chandika Hathurusingha had said before that game that Shoriful was excused from training only to keep him fresh for the first Test.

But the left-arm pacer underwhelmed in the match on a greenish surface at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, claiming just one wicket each in the two innings and at times looked fatigued.

Shoriful has been the workhorse of the national team's pace attack since last year's ICC World Cup, having played in 23 out of the 24 matches the Tigers have played in the period -- three Tests, 14 ODIs, and six Twenty20Is.

In between the Bangladesh matches, he also played 12 games for Durdanto Dhaka in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

Playing so many games at a stretch must be testing the limits of the 21-year-old's fitness and according to a source, Catapult, a software used to assess the fitness levels of the national team players, is already indicating that Shoriful is in need of a break.

Shoriful is currently the only all-format pacer in Bangladesh with Taskin Ahmed reportedly taking himself out of red-ball cricket due to back issues, Ebadot Hossain still recovering from an injury and Mustafizur Rahman not being part of the Test setup for a while.

All-format pacers have become a rare commodity in international cricket and a handful of them who are around are carefully managed by their teams, given rests in between to ensure their body doesn't break down.

Given the fact that Shoriful has been playing continuously for almost six months, veteran cricket coach Nazmul Abedin Fahim felt the pacer is in need of a rest and it would be wiser to not pick him for the forthcoming second Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram, starting tomorrow.

"In the first Test, he seemed tired. He tried, but his body wasn't responding… Maybe he is not in a position to give his 100 percent. He has definitely been overplayed," Fahim told The Daily Star.

"We think that making a cricketer play one or two more games is not a big deal. But gradually, there is an accumulation of fatigue, which we don't consider. People get worn out. Getting overplayed could really harm Shoriful," he added.

Even though the final call to include a player in the eleven is made by the team management, chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu ensured that the selection panel will also be keeping an eye on the issue.

"We are keeping an eye on it. I will go there tonight [yesterday] and will have a discussion with the team about it. We have a chance to equal the series in Chattogram. But we have a lot of white-ball matches and a T20 World Cup coming up, we have that in mind. Let's see what happens," Lipu told The Daily Star.