Bangaldesh Hopeful Of Taskin's Availability For Opener Against Sri Lanka

Bangladesh Cricket Board officials said on June 4 (Tuesday) that they are hopeful Taskin Ahmed will be hundred percent fit before the opening game against Sri Lanka, but a final call will be made following his bowling session on June 5.

Bangladesh are desperately looking forward for Taskin to recover before their opening game against Sri Lanka on June 7 in Dallas, more so after Shoriful Islam is all set to miss their opening game after sustaining six stiches in his left hand during their warm-up game against India.

BCB retained Taskin in the 15-member squad for the ICC T20 World Cup even as he was recovering from a rib-fracture that he sustained during the fourth T20I against Zimbabwe and subsequently missing the three-match T20I series against USA as well as the warm-up game against India on June 1.

Taskin began his bowling on June 1 and was expected to have an outdoor bowling session on June 3, but due to heavy rain the team management had to change the practice ground. They went to Mustang Cricket Academy indoor instead of Grand Prairie.

Taskin bowled three overs relatively in higher intensity than what he did on June 1 and following the bowling session BCB's physio Bayjedul Islam Bayezid told reporters in USA that a final call will be taken on Taskin after seeing his bowling on June 5.

"Taskin so far the way he progressed, Alhamdulillah [praise be to god]. He progressed really well. We have made some day-to-day plan for him. He was expected to bowl today (June 3) and we planned that he would bowl outdoor. Because it is raining we could not do that. Because according to the schedule today it was very important for him to bowl and that is the reason we brought him indoors. He bowled on the 1st and today on 3rd and we are happy that he is in a better position," Bayezid said..

"He is looking good and we are capturing every session to analyze and he is carrying a GPS meter where we can see how much effort he is giving and what is happening with him as we are monitoring him in details. If we see any fluctuation, we work with it but so far he is progressing well and today he gave better effort. On the next day, he is expected to give more effort," he said.

"Taskin has a good chance (for the first match) and that is reason he is in the World Cup squad and usually these kind of injuries take four weeks to heal and at times it can get a bit late but his progress is good," he said.