Taskin Keens To Skip Test Series

Bangladesh fast bowler Taskin Ahmed is keen to skip the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka in a bid to give his vulnerable shoulder some respite.

He had already requested the board not to consider the longer version format for the time being. 

"This is a matter of discussion. If he doesn't want to play the longer version format during the Sri Lanka series, we won't force him. We'll sit with him in this regard," BCB's cricket operations committee chairman Jalal Younus told the reports today.

Sri Lanka will visit Bangladesh for a full tour in March. The series includes three T20 Internationals, three ODIs and two Tests. The Tests are a part of the 2023-25 ICC World Test Championship cycle.

However, it is also learnt that the pace spearhead wants to quit Test cricket for the time being to focus more on white-ball cricket and he had already sent a letter to BCB in this regard. 

From the very beginning of his career, Taskin has been injury-prone, which forced him to miss many cricket. But he showed the mental strength to come back strongly and of late established him as the pace spearhead of the country. 

When it was believed that Taskin will lead the pace attack for a long time, he suffered a tear in should during the World Cup. As a result, he missed a couple of matches in the global event in India last year.

The injury also forced him to sit out during the two-match Test series against New Zealand at home and a white-ball return tour.

Taskin was sent to a rehabilitation program to regain his full fitness and after that he made a return to competitive cricket with BPL. But Taskin, who is part of Durdanto Dhaka, is playing the BPL by managing his injury.

"I was in rehab after the World Cup. I was slowly getting my rhythm back and it seems to be improving," Taskin said yesterday after his side's match against Sylhet Strikers in BPL.

Though he needs to go under knife to recover fully from the shoulder injury, the pacer is reluctant, given the fact that an operation will force him to stay away from cricket for more than a year.

For the last two consecutive years, Taskin was not given NOC to play the IPL for his injury concern.

Another pacer Mustafizur Rahman earlier also requested the board not to consider him for Test cricket due to injury. 

While Mustafizur was given NOC to play IPL regularly, Taskin and another pacer Shoriful were denied considering that they represent the country in longer version format.

BSS