BAN v IND: Pacer Taskin Ahmed ruled out of the opening ODI; replacement announced

Bangladesh have suffered a major blow ahead of their upcoming three-match ODI series against India as frontline pacer Taskin Ahmed has been ruled out from the opening game due to recurring back pain.

Taskin, who has been in tremendous form in the recent past, was expected to lead Bangladesh’s pace attack. As of now, Shoriful Islam has been called in as a backup in the ODI squad.

“Taskin is ruled out from the opening game of the ODIs as his back pain recurred,” BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin said, as quoted by Cricbuzz on Thursday.

“We will be seeing his progress before taking further decisions regarding his participation,” he added.

Notably, in the T20 World Cup 2022, Taskin was the star with the ball for the Tigers, picking up eight wickets in five games at an economy rate of 7.27. Further, the right-arm speedster has taken 22 wickets in 19 ODIs since his return to the Bangladesh set-up last year. Though his average of 35.81 is on the slightly higher side, his economy rate is just under 5, and he won the Player-of-the-Series award against South Africa earlier this year.

Recently, the team’s head coach Russell Domingo heaped praises on Taskin and revealed the paceman has become more consistent due to the fact that he is mentally secure and obsessed with hard work.

“Taskin has been fantastic in these last two years, just through sheer work effort, desire, determination and professionalism. [He is] always in the gym. You have to stop him from bowling. He always had the pace, but he has become a lot more consistent. He is a lot more secure in his position. In the past, there were always question marks about his fielding, consistency and handling of pressure. He has come on leaps and bounds in all these aspects,” Domingo said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.