ZCZC
BSP-22
CRICKET-BD-INJURY
BCB mulls strict injury management to keep players fit for WC
DHAKA, March 10, 2019 (BSS)-Injury to several national players and excessive pressure of cricket in domestic and International circuit has prompted the selectors to take a pre-caution measurement to keep the players fit for the ICC Cricket World Cup, starting from May 30 in England and Wales.
Ahead of the World Cup, they are mulling to reduce the players’ workload and rotate them in domestic and International cricket in a bid to keep them fresh and fit.
Bangladesh’s team strength was significantly lessened by the injury of several key players in New Zealand tour in which they hardly could form a full-strength XI. Test captain Shakib Al Hasan and pace bowler Taskin Ahmed were ruled out due to their respective injury even before the series while dependable middle order batsman Mushfiqur Rahim couldn’t play first two Test matches.
Mushfiqur’s absence particularly in Test series was a huge blow for Bangladesh as they hadn’t had anyone experienced in the middle order to capitalize on the start of the top order. When Bangladesh’s top order vulnerability was a major concern, it proved not to be fatal at least in the Test series in New Zealand.
In three innings so far in the series, the opener put up fifty plus opening stand, something no other team in the world could do in New Zealand’s soil since South Africa did it in 1999.
But in all three innings they tasted a sensational middle order collapse, vastly because of the absence of Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan.
Selectors were well aware of the fact and looked wary, particularly for the type of injury Shakib and Mushfiqur got. Shakib’s finger injury and Mushfiqur’s wrist as well as rib injury was not new thing for them, rather it was recurring and hampered their fitness in the last two years. While the pacers’ fitness was also a major concern as they remain injury-prone.
There is workload of the national players too because the team management wants them to be in match practice always. The national players will be busy with Dhaka Premier League (DPL) once the New Zealand tour ends and thereafter they will play a tri-nation series in Ireland, just ahead of the World Cup. In the meantime Shakib may play IPL also, subject to his fitness.
Considering the workload of the players, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim have already been rested from the DPL.
Bangladesh national cricket team selector Habibul Bashar said that they have a plan to manage injury as best as they can in a bid to keep all players fit for the World Cup.
“We hope to get all the guys fit ahead of the World Cup. If still, some players get injured, there is nothing to do with it. Like all, we know injuries are part of the game. But we have a plan to manage this by reducing and rotating the players workload,” Bashar said here today.”
“I hope injuries will not bother us so much during the World Cup like the ongoing tour [in New Zealand]. In the last two tours in New Zealand, we have never got our best XI.”
BSS/SMP/AU/17:55 hrs