Taskin Ahmed pulls out of LPL to prepare for Australia tour

Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed said on Wednesday (July 22) that he has withdrawn from the Lanka Premier League (LPL) to prepare for the upcoming Test tour of Australia. Taskin, who arrived in Dhaka with the team from Zimbabwe, was supposed to head to Sri Lanka due to play for Jaffna Kings in the tournament. Bangladesh are scheduled to depart in August for the all-important Australia tour where they will play a two-Test series down under for the first time since 2003. Taskin had initially obtained a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to feature in the tournament and was expected to skip the T20I series against Zimbabwe. However, he stayed back in Zimbabwe for the series after Mustafizur Rahman was ruled out due to injury. “Yeah, I had withdrawn myself from LPL and it is mainly for Australia Test series preparation,” Taskin told. “We played six matches in a row in Zimbabwe; perhaps I would have played four in that league. After my stint there (in LPL) if I return home and immediately go to Australia my Test match preparation would be hampered,” he said. He continued, "Despite a small loss, I thought it was okay because Australia series won't come around often." As a result, he made the decision to withdraw from the LPL despite receiving the NOC. After Nahid Rana suffered a strain to his left side in the second Twenty20 International against Zimbabwe, the Bangladesh team management is also anxiously waiting on him. The young fast bowler couldn't finish his spell. Rana, who showed up earlier in the day, will have scans done to see how bad the injury is. Meanwhile, left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam is undergoing rehabilitation after suffering a hamstring injury during the Zimbabwe tour. If his rehabilitation progresses as planned, he will be in contention for the opening Test as a standard recovery period for such an injury is around three weeks. The two Test matches, part of the ongoing World Test Championship cycle, will be played in Darwin (August 13-17) and Mackay (August 22-26).