New Delhi: Bangladesh reportedly dropped vice-captain Taskin Ahmed from the squad ahead of the Super 8 clash against India. The team management gave the justification that the pacer overslept and thereby missed the team bus. However, the pacer has refuted the claims and said that he didn’t play the game so the playing XI was jeopardised.
Bangladesh usually played with a two-prong pace attack, Taskin being the second pacer. However, with the red-hot form of Tanzid Hasan Shakib, Taskin failed to find a place in the playing XI. Bangladesh eventually lost the game against India held on 22nd June at Antigua. The men in blue thwarted the challenge from the Tigers to win the contest by 50 runs.
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The barrage of narratives…
Although the justification given by the management was ‘oversleeping‘, the actual reason was something else according to Taskin. In a local newspaper named Ajker Patrika, Taskin was seen quoting “I arrived at the ground around 30-40 minutes before the toss. I missed the team bus. The bus left the hotel at 8.35 am. “I left for the ground at 8.43 am. I almost reached the ground with the bus. It is not as if they didn’t pick me up because I arrived late. I wasn’t going to play anyway.”
Taskin Ahmed said that he was left out of the #INDvBAN match for combination reasons, and not because he missed the team bus to the venue 🗣️
Full story 👉 https://t.co/PtUr27mDvC #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/5pOsBL0HEa
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) July 3, 2024
Ahmed found his rightful place back into the side against Afghanistan. However, by that time it was too little too late too late to make any meaningful impact on his side’s qualification chances. The Tigers eventually lost the game by a close margin which led to the qualification of Afghanistan.
Taskin Ahmed on sports journalists 👀#T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/npgVEfFv4l
— Cricketangon (@cricketangon) July 3, 2024
Justifying the management’s claim, Bangladesh’s star all-rounder Shakib al Hasan remarked that Taskin was indeed late for the match and arrived just 5-6 minutes before the toss. Moreover, Shakib was quick to add that transportation in the Caribbean is a bit problematic which makes the team bus the only source of transportation at times!
