Mortaza and Rasel ruled fit for Champions Trophy

The injured Bangladesh fast bowlers Mashrafe Mortaza and Syed Rasel will be fit for the Champions Trophy, Dav Whatmore, the coach has confirmed. Mortaza and Rasel missed the first of Bangladesh's practice games while the second one at Savar was washed out without a ball being bowled.

Mortaza, the architect of Bangladesh's recent 3-0 whitewash of Kenya in an away one-day series, sustained an ankle injury earlier this month while Rasel had a foot injury.

Meanwhile, Habibul Bashar, the Bangladesh captain who has recovered from the finger-injury he sustained in Bangladesh's tour of Zimbabwe in July, regretted that the side could only play one practice game before the Champions Trophy. "We are looking forward to the only practice match in India," Bashar told The Daily Star, a Dhaka-based daily. Our target is very simple. We want to play in the second round and I honestly believe that we have the ability to make it happen.

"It is tough as Sri Lanka are in very good form while West Indies played good cricket in their last tournament and Zimbabwe won the last series against us but still it is not impossible for us. We have to win at least two games if we want to reach the second round that's why we will try to win all our three games. There have been much talk about the Zimbabwe match but it will not surprise me if we qualify for the main tournament beating the strong opponents."

Whatmore accepted that the most realistic ambition for Bangladesh was qualification, and said that the team was determined to win all three qualifying matches. "West Indies played pretty well in the DLF Cup in Malaysia. They made it to the final. So, for us to make it through to the Champions Trophy proper, it will take really a good effort but we are capable of it.

"It would be preferable to get some runs at the top. If we are able to get some good runs without losing too many wickets then that would be a nice start. At times we expose the middle order and the lower order a bit early that is not nice. But this is a young team and have tremendous potential," he added.

The chief selector Faruq Ahmed said the primary goal of the side was to beat Zimbabwe, to whom Bangladesh lost 3-2 in Harare. "We have to do it to prove that we are better than the Zimbabweans," Ahmed said. "But it will not be easy to beat the West Indies or Sri Lanka as both are playing good cricket."

Bangladesh have to win at least two ties of the qualifying round, which features West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, but the injury news will be a boost.