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Injury scares for Bangladesh ahead of WC opener
DHAKA, May 30, 2019 (BSS) – As their first match against South Africa on June 2 at The Oval is round the corner, Bangladesh seemed to have lost their sleep over some injury scare.
Some of the leading cricketers of the team are carrying some sort of niggles and it is unlikely that they would be fully fit ahead of the first match. But since those players are central in Bangladesh’s plan, it is sure that they would play the first match through the injury.
Mashrafe, who suffered an injury earlier in his right hamstring, was in doubt to play against India but played eventually. It looked to have back fired to some extent as he felt some pain in his left hamstring in his sixth over, leaving him out of the ground for the large part of the game. Shakib was seen leading the side in absence of him. He however even didn’t bat.
The unexpected niggle of Mashrafe only adds more misery into the Tigers dressing room as Mohammad Saifuddin , Mustafizur Rahman and all-rounder Mahmudullah are also carrying injury. Shakib Al Hasan, who just came out of back muscle injury, is however in good stead so far. Shakib’s good health is a sigh of relief for the team management.
Bangladesh team physio Thihan Chandramohan inspected Mashrafe’s injury condition after the match and said players usually need 5-6 days to recover from such condition but Bangladesh team have three days left ahead of their first match of the world cup.
However, Mashrafe told reporters that he is expected to be fine before the opening game and insisted that he is more concerned about his team mates.
Pacer Saifuddin had to take pain killer to get rid of the pain before the warm-up game against India while Mustafizur bowled brilliantly in his first spell with 135-140kmh speed but he also had pain in his calf muscle.
Mahmudullah, who had some bowling practice in the net on the previous day ahead of their second warm-up match against India, was not able to bowl for his shoulder injury.
Opener Tamim Iqbal was also out of the playing eleven against India with gluteal muscle injury. National team selector Habibul Bashar, though, said it was nothing to be worried about Tamim’s injury as he categorized it as a decision of precaution of the management.
Pacer Rubel Hossain, who suffered a back strain earlier, returned to ground and bowled eight overs against India and picked up two wickets.
BSS/SMP/SMM/1555 hrs