Have Bangladesh lost the battle before it starts?

Bangladesh's captain may not keep wickets during the solitary Test against India next week

He has triple roles in the team -- captain, batsman and wicketkeeper

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim may not keep wickets in the one-off Test against India next week, as he is yet to fully recover from a finger injury, BCB president Nazmul Hassan said.

Mushfiqur sprained his ring finger on his right hand during the Khulna Test against Pakistan in April and even though he played the second Test of that series he found it difficult to be at his best behind the stumps.

Mushfiqur has triple roles in the team -- captain, batsman and wicketkeeper -- and Hassan feels he may have to give up one, which is likely to be wicketkeeping.

"There was some talk about removing him as captain, but it wasn't done by the cricket board," Hassan said.

"If Mushfiqur feels the pressure, he will have to decide on it. He has to take a call on which one he wants. In my opinion the wicketkeeping will come up for consideration first.

"As far as I know, he wants to keep wickets. But since he hasn't fully recovered from injury ahead of this [India] series, there is some doubt about it. He may not keep wickets," he added.

Mushfiqur was a regular wicketkeeper in the 21 Tests he captained so far and averaged 38.85 with the bat, which is better than his career batting average of 32.34.

In T20s too, his batting average is 31.37, better than his average as captain and wicketkeeper -- 29.36.

Interestingly, the diminutive Bangladesh 'keeper averaged 56.23 in 14 ODIs, including a century and six fifties, after he was removed as ODI captain last September.

It will be a choice between Anamul Haque and Litton Das if Mushfiqur decides to give up his role as wicketkeeper in the Test as the duo were included in Bangladesh's 23-man preliminary squad for the India series.