Iqbal named as interim Bangladesh captain for upcoming Sri Lanka tour
Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal was named as interim captain for their upcoming Sri Lanka tour. This comes after captain Mashrafe Mortaza was ruled out of the one-day international (ODI) matches because of a hamstring injury.
“Mortaza injured his left hamstring during training today. He received immediate MSK ultrasound examination which has revealed a grade 1 injury,” announced Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) senior physician Debashis Chowdhury in a statement. “It is a recurrent injury that could take around three to four weeks to recover from. Therefore, he is ruled out from participation in sporting activity for a month.”
Meanwhile, Mortaza stated he wanted to continue being the Tigers’ captain despite ongoing rumours of his retirement after their ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 failure.
“To be honest, I don’t feel embarrassed or disappointed with it (retirement rumours). It’s normal (that) everyone will consider (from) my performance from their point of view,” stated Mortaza. “As a player, I am not close to MS Dhoni as he scored over 10,000 runs in ODIs. But at least in every press conference, he has been asked the same (retirement) question. I think we should see it normally.”
“Being a player I could not deliver my best in World Cup, both as a captain and a player and the team also failed to go to the semi-final,” continued Mortaza. “So it’s normal the question will be raised. I also see it this way. There’s nothing else to consider.”
Bangladesh will begin their three ODI matches against Sri Lanka on July 26 at R. Premadasa Stadium. This Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka comes after the World Cup ended on July 14 with host nation England bagging the trophy.
If you want to know how the tournament works, check out Betwala’s article.
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