Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe Mortaza will contest in the upcoming Bangladesh general election that has been scheduled to be held on 23 December 2018. The Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has confirmed that Mortaza will fight for the ruling party.

In the upcoming election, the 35-year-old Bangladesh right-arm pacer will fight for Hasina’s Awami League. A spokesman Mahbubul Alam Hanif said, “He plans to contest from Narail.”

Mortaza is currently focusing for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England that will begin May 30, 2019. But before that tournament, Mortaza is set for another big test as he is going to stand in the general election. However, he has made no comment publicly yet.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has also given the green signal as they have no issue with Mortaza’s political career.

A BCB spokesman Jalal Yunus said according to Times Now, “We expect him to keep the balance between his playing career and politics. However, a word is yet to come from the present captain of the ODI team on his running for the Awami League but on active players, there has been no moratorium that has been placed on trying their hand at politics.

“To run in an election is his constitutional right. If he wants to exercise these rights, we have no issue.”

While Mortaza has played his last Test in July 2009 and retired from the T20I cricket in last year, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is likely to his final assignment in international cricket career.

Making his international cricket debut in November 2001, at the age of just 18-year-old, Mortaza has played 36 Tests, 199 ODIs and 54 T20Is where he has picked up a total of 372 wickets in international cricket career (78 Test wickets, 252 ODI wickets and 42 T20I wickets).

Mortaza has led the national side in a total of 96 matches (only Test, 67 ODIs and 28 T20Is) where Bangladesh has achieved some remarkable success.