Mustafiz did not play a Test since his debut series against South Africa in 2015 as he was recovering from different injuries and required a surgery on his shoulder last year.
He made a brief return against New Zealand in December-January After prolonger injury lay-off, but his involvement was limited only in limited-overs cricket.
Mustafiz recently proved his fitness for longer-version cricket in franchise-based domestic first-class competition Bangladesh Cricket League prompting his Test recall.
Bangladesh will play two Tests at the start of the tour, one at Galle on Sri Lanka’s southern coast from March 7-11 and another in the capital Colombo from March 15-19.
The second Test at Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo will be 100th Test match for Bangladesh.
They then play three 50 over internationals before facing off for two Twenty20 matches in the tour, stretching up to April 6.
Selectors handed paceman Rubel Hossain a recall after he was ignored for the one-off Test against India in Hyderabad, which Bangladesh had lost by 208 runs.
Rubel came as one of five pacers in an extended squad as selectors felt the team would require some extra energy in hot and humid conditions in Sri Lanka.
‘We think we would require an extra pacer in testing conditions in Sri Lanka,’ said chief selector Minhajul Abedin.
‘We included Rubel as he did well in BCL recently,’ he said.
Paceman Shafiul Islam, who was in the squad for India Test but did not play, made the way for Rubel.
Opener Imrul Kayes also did not find a place as he failed to recover sufficiently from thigh injury that he suffered in India.
There was also no room for regular BCL performers like Tushar Imran, Shahriar Nafees and Naeem Islam.
Squad: Mushfiqur Rahim (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Sakib al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Liton Das, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Kamrul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Mosaddek Hossain, Subashis Roy and Rubel Hossain
Source: New Age
