DUBAI: Shakib Al Hasan has been ruled out of the Asia Cup and has subsequently returned home after the condition of his fractured finger worsened. BCB’s cricket operations chairman Akram Khan said that the team was trying to get Shakib ready for the knockout clash against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, but the pain had increased to the point where he couldn’t take part in the game.
“He will be out for four to six weeks,” Akram said. “The pain had increased over the last few days and physio Thihan Chandramohan tried his best to get him on the field, but the pain was too much. I would like to thank Shakib for playing the first four matches with the pain he had.”
Bangladesh manager Khaled Mahmud had earlier said that Shakib’s latest scan, taken on Monday, wasn’t encouraging. “He actually can’t grip the bat. The report was not good,” Mahmud had told The Daily Star. “There has been inflammation of the finger [since he last played] and the pain has also increased.”
Shakib had sustained the injury on January 27, during a tri-series final against Sri Lanka in Dhaka. After some confusion over his recovery, Shakib ended up playing the Nidahas T20 Trophy in March, where Bangladesh lost to India in the final. Shakib then led Bangladesh in a T20I series against Afghanistan in June and then played every match in Bangladesh’s tour of the West Indies – two Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is.
But, after returning home in August, Shakib said that he needed surgery, and would determine the timing after consulting the doctors. However, a few hours later, BCB president Nazmul Hassan asked Shakib to postpone his surgery till after the Asia Cup, since he had played with the injury till then, and Shakib agreed.
Ahead of the Asia Cup, Shakib had said that he was “20-30 per cent fit” but later sent a clarification to the BCB, saying his words on his fitness were “misinterpreted”.
Shakib, like Tamim Iqbal who sustained a fracture on his knuckle during the opening match of the Asia Cup, is likely to miss much of Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh, which starts on October 21.