Saif out, Nayeem gets a scare

Medical staff looks at the injured finger of Bangladesh’s uncapped opener Saif Hasan at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday. — BCB photo

Bangladesh on Wednesday suffered an injury blow ahead of the second and final Test against India as their uncapped opener Saif Hasan was ruled out of the match due to an injury.

Saif hurt his right little finger while fielding as the 12th man during the first Test in Indore and failed to recover sufficiently to make him available for the Test.

Saif did join the team in the practice session at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday and his participation was limited to only running.

‘Opening batsman Saif Hasan had split his finger webbing while on 12th man fielding duty during the first Test,’ said a Bangladesh Cricket Board statement.

‘The injury has not yet healed and the medical team is of the opinion that he will benefit from being rested to full recovery.

‘Taking the state of injury into consideration, Saif has been ruled out of the second Test,’ it added.

Saif was not picked in the first Test but stood with a good chance to make his debut in Kolkata after the twin failures of Imrul Kayes and Shadman Islam in Indore.

Both Imrul and Shadman made identical score of six runs in both the innings of the first Test that Bangladesh lost by an innings and 130 runs in three days.

Bangladesh will now have to pick the team from 14 available players as all-rounder Mosaddek Hossain also returned home for personal reasons.

They received another injury scare on Wednesday when off-spinner Nayeem Hasan was hurt on his head during the practice session.

He underwent a CT scan at a Kolkata hospital and nothing serious was found in his report, said the team officials.

The second Test, which will be a day-night affair, will get underway on Friday at Eden Gardens.

Source: New Age.