Published: Aug 18, 2018, 07:52 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 18, 2018, 07:52 PM (IST)
With less than a month remaining for the start of Asia Cup 2018 in UAE, Bangladesh are sweating over the availability of their talismanic allrounder Shakib Al Hasan for the tournament.
Shakib wanted to undergo surgery on his injured finger after the completion of West Indies tour putting into doubts his participation in Asia Cup. The 31-year-old hurt his little finger of the left hand while fielding during an ODI tri-series in January earlier this year.
That forced him to miss a two-match Test series and two T20Is against Sri Lanka. But he joined the Bangladesh squad midway through the 2018 Nidahas Trophy. Recently, Shakib hinted he wanted to get the injury treated as soon as possible.
However, Bangladesh chief selector Minhajul Abedin on Saturday revealed they haven’t yet considered the eventuality of their Test and T20I captain skipping the Asia Cup but are still expecting him to join a team camp later this month.
”We do not have any update of surgery yet, so we have not thought of it [replacement] to be honest,” Minhajul told reporters at Mirpur. ”We will start thinking about it as soon as we have an update of his surgery. The camp starts on August 27 and we hope he will be able to join the camp.”
Bangladesh have included Shakib’s name in a 31-member preliminary squad for the Asia Cup which starts from September 15. They have been placed alongside Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in Group B. India, Pakistan and a Qualifier have been placed in Group A.
