Mustafizur set to be given more time ahead of county stint at Sussex

Sussex captain Luke Wright has said Mustafizur Rahman will be given some time off following his stint for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.

It was already uncertain whether Mustafizur would be playing the first two matches of the Natwest T20 Blast, which began on Friday.

Following reports that Mustafizur was considering pulling out of his visit to England, Sussex agreed to give the 20-year-old seamer more time to recover from the long spell of playing away from his own country.

Sussex coach Mark Davis, however, had told local newspaper the Argus that they were confident about getting Mustafizur.

Captain Wright, too, shared his coach's view. "Fizz is definitely coming but we are just clarifying the number of games he is going to play," he told the Argus.

"We have to understand he is a young lad, who has been away from home for a long time in an environment where he doesn’t speak the language.

"He’s also played a lot of games so we want to give him enough time to rest so that when he does come over we get the best out of him."

Sussex beat Gloucestershire by one run in their opening match of the T20 Blast. Ross Taylor, the other overseas player of the team, hammered eight sixes on his way to 93 off just 48 balls.

Mustafizur was not supposed to play the match since he is taking part in the IPL at present

Sussex will take on Somerset on Jun 1. The left-arm pacer was doubtful for that match, too, while their Jun 3 match against Surrey has now been added to the list of matches he might miss.

A week's break follows after the third match. Wright hopes to have Mustafizur in the match against Kent on Jun 10 in their own backyard - Hove.

"We always knew he was likely to miss the first two games; so it is a case of whether he misses an extra game or not.

"Obviously, we’d like him for as many games as possible as he is in such great form but either way he’ll still be available for a large chunk of the matches."

After bursting into the scene in international cricket last year, Mustafizur has taken the IPL by storm.

"When we did our research on him, people told us what a big player he was going to be. When someone like Kumar Sangakkara says he is a special talent then you sit up and take notice," Wright said.

"He’s proving how good he is out in India at the moment; so we’ve done very well to get him on the deal we have as I don’t think he’ll be quite so cheap in the future."