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The 15-member squad for the ICC T20 World Cup has retained fast bowler Taskin Ahmed, the Bangladesh Cricket Board said on Saturday, May 25. The 29-year-old, who is presently recovering from a rib fracture, will not play in the June 1 warm-up match against India because he is anticipated to begin bowling on that day.
In case Taskin was unable to recuperate, Hasan Mahmud, a paceman, was added to the squad for the current three-match T20I series as a backup.
For the three Twenty20 Internationals against the USA, Bangladesh chose to field a 17-man team, and Taskin went with them because the team management thought he would be well enough to play before the world tournament, which ultimately came to pass.
Debashish Chowdhury, the chief physician for the Bangladesh Cricket Board, reported on Friday, May 24, that they had heard great things about Taskin’s recuperation after an MRI on May 23. “Taskin has made excellent and pleasing progress. In addition to receiving gym training, he is enduring a rehabilitation process. We are going to start bowling later, but for now, he is doing running workouts,” Debashish said.
“We just got the reports [of the MRI scan] and talked to the doctor, and it seemed the fracture is almost healed and now we will slowly introduce him to short run-up bowling and later increase the intensity. He is not having any problem with running and now we will be doing throwing sessions in the coming days before starting to bowl with short run-ups. We are hopeful he will be available from the opening game of the World Cup if he continues to progress in this manner.”
“It was a case of formality. Every team was given this opportunity (of changing players till May 25) and so we got the time till 11:59 AM Dubai time and following that rule we have spoken with the coach and the captain and we kept Taskin in our 15-member squad for World Cup,” BCB chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain told reporters at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday.