DHAKA: Injured pacers Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam have been ruled out of the first Test against Sri Lanka, set to begin on May 15, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) cricket operation chairman Jalal Yunus confirmed on Sunday.
Yunus said that they want the pace duo to return to full fitness given the packed international assignments lined up in the coming days.
Earlier, Shoriful had missed the two-match Test series against South Africa due to an ankle injury. Even though the pacer recovered from it, BCB is planning to send him abroad to have an operation as he is having abdominal issues. On the other hand, Taskin injured his right shoulder during the opening Test against South Africa and was ruled out from the following Test. He is now going through conservative treatment for the supraspinatus tendon injury.
"Taskin is unlikely to play against Sri Lanka while Shoriful is likely to miss the opening Test against the Lankans at home. Taskin is having a shoulder injury and is now going through conservative treatment but we want to send him to England to assess his status and take necessary steps so that when he returns, he is fully fit," Jalal told Cricbuzz on Sunday.
Shoriful also needs to go abroad for another treatment, and for that, we are unlikely to get him in the opening Test against Sri Lanka. We want them to sort out all their physical issues and return fully fit as we have a lot of international cricket ahead," he added.
Jalal also mentioned that BCB is thinking of compensating Taskin for not playing in the IPL though he did not want to reveal the amount.
Bangladesh's former national captain Mashrafe Mortaza urged BCB to compensate Taskin for missing the IPL to make him available in the Test series against South Africa.
"We will try to compensate him financially (for skipping IPL to play for the national team) and we have kept that in our mind but you must consider that even he said that the series was more important than IPL. So money is not the major issue but surely we are thinking how we can compensate him," he said. (IANS)
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