DHAKA, April 10, 2019 (BSS)-Fast bowler Taskin Ahmed was rusty on his return to competitive cricket after long injury lay-off as he began his quest to grab a place in the Bangladesh World Cup-bound squad.
Taskin was determined to make an impression and as a result tried everything for table-toppers Legends of Rupganj against Uttara Sporting Club in today’s match.
But it hardly looked good enough as the opponent batsmen became comfortable against his short balls, the most used ones during his five-over spell that cost him 36 runs without any success.
Taskin was such desperate to make a comeback day in competitive cricket that he began to match just two days after bowling with full run-up.
But the huge difference between match fitness and being able to bowl few overs in full run-up in couple of sessions was exposed when he was thrashed by the lesser-known names.
Taskin sustained an ankle injury while trying to take a catch in the boundary line during his side, Sylhet Sixers’ last match of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). The injury ruled him out of Bangladesh’s one-day international and Test series in New Zealand in February-March.
“Naturally butterflies were flying inside my stomach,” Taskin said after the match.
“I am bowling in a competitive match after a pretty long gap and it’s not easy to deliver right away coming from an injury,” he said.
”I am happy that I could complete the game without facing any kind of problem and if my progress remains in this manner than it won’t take long for me to get back into my own groove,” he added.
Taskin added that he tried to bowl short intentionally as that would help him to gain some confidence back as this delivery requires huge amount of effort apart from the other deliveries tried by pace bowler.
”I bowled short intentionally,” said Taskin. “You need to put lot of effort when you try to bowl short balls and I just wanted to check out whether I have got that or not,” he said.
He also added he is well aware that he is running out of time to prove his fitness ahead of the World Cup.
Former national pacer Nazmul Hossain, who is overseeing Legends pace department as their pace bowling coach said that they are quite aware that Taskin would need sometime before getting back to his best but if morning shows the day than certainly it looks to be bright for the national spearhead.
”The important thing was whether he was having a good rhythm or not and it looked he never lacked in this aspect,” said Nazmul.
”It’s true that he bowled quite a few short deliveries but at the same time you must remember that he is coming from a lay off and certainly he would try several thing to get back his confidence,” he added.