Pune: Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is still uncertain of playing in Thursday’s crucial ICC Men’s ODI World Cup match against hosts India and a final call on his availability will be taken only on the morning of the match.
Shakib had suffered a left quad injury during Bangladesh’s match against New Zealand a few days back and the team management is sweating on the availability of their best player for the match against table-toppers India.
Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe on Wednesday said that Shakib will play the match only if he is declared 100% fit by the medical staff. “If he is not ready we will not take the risk of putting him in,” he told the pre-match press conference.
Shakib is a key all-rounder for Bangladesh and has claimed 3-30 in the win against Afghanistan and scored a crucial 40 against New Zealand.
The 36-year-old had a lengthy batting practice in nets session on Tuesday and did some running too. However, he did not bowl.
Hathurusinghe said he had a scan on Wednesday and they are waiting for the report before taking a final call on his availability. He avoided a response about his options in case Shakib could not play Thursday’s match.
The former Sri Lanka player, who has been coaching Bangladesh for the last few years, admitted that his batting unit has failed to put up its best performance and hoped that they would manage to do that against India on Thursday.
In this regard, Hathurusinghe noted that the wicket for Thursday’s match was the best batting strip they have got so far and hoped that his batters would make the most of the opportunity.
He said they are not thinking about the Indian team but are rather concentrating on their own processes. He said the important thing for them is to do their best and not think about things that are not in their control.
He said things like recent success and past record would have no impact on the match and what would matter more is which of the two teams is able to give its best in the match.
Hathurusinghe said considering that the wicket is expected to aid the batters, it would be prudent to go with an extra bowler. Taking into consideration the pitch conditions, Bangladesh may be tempted to hand 20-year-old right-arm pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib a World Cup debut. Bowling in tandem with Taskin Ahmad, the Bangladesh think tank would believe that he could be a handful for the Indian openers, especially skipper Rohit Sharma who has been in tremendous form so far.
–IANS
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