Taskin Ahmed, a fast bowler, has been told by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that he can’t play for Yorkshire County Cricket Club in the County Championship season, which is going on right now. The choice was made because the cricket board doesn’t want to put him at risk before the ODI World Cup 2023, which starts on October 5 in India.
Ottis Gibson, the head coach of the YCCC and a former bowling teacher for the Bangladesh team, is said to have asked Ahmed to play for them. The Bangladesh seamer then asked Gibson to talk to BCB about this, but the talks didn’t lead to a good outcome.
“Yes, Yorkshire wanted him to play for them, but we turned them down because we don’t want him to take on too much by playing red-ball cricket in county before the World Cup,” BCB’s cricket business chairman, Jalal Yunus, was quoted by Cricbuzz as saying.
“He (Taskin) just got over an injury, and he’s also in our Test squad. We have plans for how we want him to be (in terms of fitness) before the World Cup,” he said.
The seamer, who is 28 years old, has been added to the team for the one-off Test against Afghanistan, which starts on June 14 at Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. He had recently been treated for a side strain and had to go through therapy. Because of the injury, Ahmed didn’t play in the one-off Test and the three-match ODI series against Ireland in March and April.
On Sunday, June 4, Bangladesh started practicing at the Shere-Bangla National Stadium before the Afghanistan Test. For the first time, the right-handed fast bowler was seen bowling at full strength. Chandika Hathurusingha, who was in Dhaka the day before (June 3) to prepare his team for the series, told Ahmed how to bowl.
Before the Test against Afghanistan, the team management will make a last-minute decision about Taskin.
Habibul Bashar, a member of the BCB selection team, said that they will decide about the seamer’s chance to play in the next Test at the last minute because he just got over an injury.
“I think we’ll decide whether or not he plays in the Test against Afghanistan at the last minute,” Habibul was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. “We put him on the team with the idea that he would be ready for the Test, but we also have to remember that he just got over an injury.”