Mustafizur Rahman out of Asia Cup, Tamim returns

Mustafizur Rahman will miss rest of Bangladesh’s matches in the Asia Cup T20 due to the injury he suffered during yesterday’s match against Sri Lanka. Opener Tamim Iqbal will join the squad for the rest of the tournament. The fast bowler is suffering from a side strain which was revealed after an MRI was conducted today.

Meanwhile, Tamim, who became a father just yesterday, replaces the pacer in the squad for the tournament. He returned to Dhaka from his paternal leave this afternoon. He joined the team in the practice session at Mirpur. The left-hander is a brilliant attacking batsman who will strengthen the team.

The team management does not want to take any risk regarding Mustafizur with the ICC World T20 scheduled to begin on March 8, 2016, in India. The young pacer got hammered against India in the opening encounter against India, however, came back strongly against UAE and Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza recently said that Mustafizur has proved how mentally strong he is in the match against the UAE. He urged fans not to burden Rahman with the weight of expectation in all matches as reported by bdnews24.com. He picked up 2/13 against UAE and followed it up with another impressive spell of 1/19 against Sri Lanka.

With back-to-back wins, the hosts are in contention for a place in the Asia Cup final. Bangladesh plays their final league encounter against Pakistan and will need a win to reach the summit clash. Rahman’s absence may affect their chances however they have enough depth in the squad to stay competitive.