It was the eve of the squad announcement day for the two match Test series against Sri Lanka at home; the greatest surprise delivered by the national team selection panel was to pick veteran Abdur Razzak – it has been four and half years since he was thrown out of the scene in the pick of his career.

The much talked decision turned rather obscure when Abdur Razzak was sidelined for the first match of the series in Chittagong. ‘All he needs is to perform well in the nets to be considered for the team’ – one of the most proven performers of the team perceived bizarrely once again.

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Being perched in the corner of the dressing room deprived of the white jersey, Razzak might promised to himself to showcase the better of him if he gets the chance.

And it seemed as if yesterday he played for the national team when the 35 year old stepped into the field accompanying his mates to play in the series decider against Sri Lanka.

In a presumably spinning track at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, captain in charge Mahmudullah Riyad handed the cherry over to Razzak; no sooner than he took the ball in hand, Razzak brought the first breakthrough in the innings for Bangladesh.

Lankan opener Dimuth Karunaratne (3 off 12) fell into the trap as the prolific performer allured Karunaratne to step out, the ball strolled out the batsman’s leg and the stumping chance went easily for Litton Kumar Das.

The first session of the first day saw rumbling of 4 Lankan wickets, out of which 3 were claimed by Abdur Razzak.

The 28th over of the innings witnessed taking Razzak back to back wickets in consecutive deliveries. Gunathilaka’s 13 run innings came to an end in the first ball of the new spell of Razzak.

In a tossed up delivery, Gunathilaka tried to lift the ball over mid-off, only to be caught by Mushfiqur Rahim, who jumped and picked up a near perfect catch.

Sri Lanka’s misery prolonged in the next delivery. New comer in the crease Dinesh Chandimal’s defence was completely battered by Razzak’s sharp spin that ripped the middle stump of batsman.

Although Razzak missed the chance of a much anticipated hat-trick, he paid off three overs later dismissing the highest scorer Kusal Mendis. It was the second ball after lunch when the all-set batsman Razzak had to depart at the personal score of 68 (98 balls).

The armer of the veteran campaigner played the trick here, the ball beat outside edge, spun and dislodge the off-stump revealed the delivery quite unplayable.

In February 2014, Abdur Razzak appeared in his last Test match for Bangladesh; that was also against Sri Lanka. He got the opportunity to bowl only 4 overs in that innings and could not take any wickets conceding 6 runs.

In this season, Abdur Razzak became the first Bangladeshi bowler to register 500 first class wickets.

Playing 153 one day international matches for Bangladesh, Razzak captured 207 wickets. While in Test, Razzak has a tally of 23 wickets in 18 innings of 12 matches.

<Click here to watch Abdur Razzak’s 4 wickets against Sri Lanka>