Tamim Iqbal to miss two months of action due to knee injury

Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup preparations have hit a road bump as star Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal has been ruled out of the upcoming T20I series against Australia and the following limited-overs series against New Zealand. Iqbal suffered a knee injury in April in Sri Lanka. The southpaw recovered well but seems to have exaggerated his injury during the Dhaka Premier League which ruled him out of the one-off Test against Zimbabwe. Tamim, however, was confident of featuring in the full limited-overs leg against Zimbabwe but pulled out of the T20I series at the last minute upon advice from a famous orthopedic surgeon from Australia.

Tamim is one of the key members of the Bangladesh limited-overs setup and his absence is sure shot to affect Tigers' performance against Australia and New Zealand. However, it is understood that Tamim opted for rest as he does not want to take any chances for the T20 World Cup. The southpaw needs to be at prime fitness if Bangladesh have to make any sort of impact in the showpiece event in UAE.

BCB chief selector confirms the news

Confirming the news, Minhajul Abedin Bangladesh’s chief selector said, “Tamim will return home alongside Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam from the ODI side.”

“Tamim has been advised to rest for six to eight weeks. He won’t be able to play against Australia and New Zealand at home, but he might play against England . We have asked Rubel (Hossain), (Mohammad) Mithun, and Mosaddek (Hossan) to stay back with the T20I side as part of our contingency plan for the Australia series,” said Abedin to ESPN
Cricinfo.

“We have to keep players in quarantine for ten days ahead of the Australia series bio-bubble. We want to have as many options as possible as we won’t be able to call up players from outside the bio-bubble,” he added.