Tom Moody expects Mustafizur Rahman to join SRH by 7th April

There was a lot of chaos regarding the availability of Bangladesh’s left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman for the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad side in the Indian Premier League 2017 season as his No Objection Certificate to participate in the tournament is yet to be given by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

However, the SRH head coach, Tom Moody has expected Mustafizur to join the side by April 7th, a day after the completion of the T20I series between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Sunrisers Hyderabad kicks-off their quest of defending the title on April 5th at their home ground, Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad against the yesteryear’s runners, Royal Challengers Bangalore. With Mustafizur joining the squad on 7th, he could feature in his side’s 2nd game at the same venue on 9th against Gujarat Lions.

Talking in a media interaction on Sunday along with Chris Jordan and Ben Laughlin, Tom Moody was hopeful about his side’s achievement and defending the title. “I look at the coming edition as yet another book, not just a chapter. Yes, we are all definitely proud of what the team has achieved last year by winning the championship. We hope just hope to replicate that kind of form,” said Moody.

Moody expected this season will witness a hard-fought contest among all the teams. “Like the previous editions, this IPL too should be a hard-fought tournament as all franchisees have put in a lot of efforts to have the best combinations with some of the best international players in the line-ups. The first match being against the team whom we beat in the last year’s final, we hope for strong crowd support,” said the SRH coach.

Talking about the addition of the Afghanistan pair, Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan, “We are all excited to have Nabi and Rashid in our squad. Both lend variety to our squad. Rashid has troubled the best in the business with his bowling and is a very good spinning all-rounder option for us in the middle-overs,” concluded Moody.