Taskin out, Shakib uncertain

Pace bowler Taskin Ahmed sustained an injury during the third Twenty20 international of the series against Pakistan, which ruled him out from the Test series at the last moment.

BCB have announced the Bangladesh squad for the first Test of the two-match series against Pakistan, scheduled to start from November 26 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.

Bangladesh have made four changes from their last Test, which they played against Zimbabwe in July. Mahmudullah, who supposedly played his last Test, receiving a ‘guard of honour’ from his teammates, has not been picked for the Test series against Pakistan.

Tamim Iqbal is out due to his injury, Taskin is also unavailable as he had stitches in the area between his thumb and index finger in his right hand, left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam also missing out due to injury concerns.

Regarding Taskin, BCB physician Debashish Chowdhury said, “Taskin had stitches in his bowling hand, he was sent to Evercare Hospital. His stitches will be removed after seven days, then we will see.”

That almost rules him for the entire series as the second Test starts on December 4 in Dhaka.

Mahmudul Hasan, a batsman from the World Cup-winning Under-19 team, got his maiden call-up to the national team, and Rejaur Rahman Raja was included at the last moment as Taskin is missing out.

Chief selector Minhazul Abedin said on the Inclusion of Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Rejaur Rahman Raja, “It is still early days for him, but Mahmudul has shown good temperament for the longer version. He is also an in-form batsman. With injury concerns to Taskin (Ahmed) and Shoriful (Islam), we needed to keep our pace bowling options open, and Raja got the nod.”

Shakib has already arrived in the country from the USA. He left the team hotel during the T20 World Cup due to a hamstring injury and did not play in the last two matches for Bangladesh against South Africa and Australia.