Bangladesh paceman and T20I vice-captain Taskin Ahmed reportedly apologized to his teammates for missing the bus before their T20 World Cup 2024 match against India at North Sound in Antigua. According to a senior BCB official, the right-arm pacer overslept and couldn’t wake up on time.
Bangladesh confronted disapproval for their team selection against India in the Super eight match, selecting for just two pacers and skipping Taskin. The team made 196 runs in 20 overs and lost by 50 runs, ensuing in their removal from the tournament.
A Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official, speaking anonymously, indicated that Taskin’s exclusion from the match against India was a decision made by coach Chandika Hathurusingha. Taskin returned for the subsequent match against Afghanistan and took 1/12 from four overs. As quoted by Cricbuzz, the official commented:
“It is true that he (Taskin) joined the team later after missing the team bus. But why he did not play only the coach can say because whether he was in the plan or not (against India) is something that can be answered by the head coach.”
“If there was any issue, how he played the next game against Afghanistan. He apologized to his team mates and everyone for not being able to get up on time and that’s it and no need to make an issue out of it.”
Hathurusingha declined to provide a comment when contacted about the issue by Cricbuzz.
“I haven’t witnessed such an extended period of poor form for the batters”- Taskin Ahmed
As one of the poorest-performing batting units in the World Cup, the 29-year-old expressed optimism about the batters’ prolonged lean period coming to an end soon. He shared this sentiment with reporters after arriving in Bangladesh, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo.
“When you talk about the batting, if you look at the statistics, I think every [teams’] batting department suffered in the USA this time. Bowlers got a lot of help. We got better [batting] wickets in the West Indies.”
“I haven’t seen such a long bad patch for the batters in my 10 years playing for Bangladesh. I hope it goes away quickly. We never had great numbers in T20s. We are improving slowly.”
Bangladesh ended the Super 8 stage without a win, suffering defeats to Australia, India, and Afghanistan.
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