Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed apologized to teammates after missing team bus ahead of T20 World Cup 2024 match vs India, says BCB official
Bangladesh paceman and T20I vice-captain Taskin Ahmed reportedly apologized to his teammates for missing the bus ahead of their T20 World Cup 2024 fixture against India at North Sound in Antigua. According to a top Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official, the right-arm pacer couldn't get up from his sleep on time.
Bangladesh made a questionable team selection against India in the Super 8 fixture, picking only two pacers, and leaving Taskin out. The Tigers ended up conceding 196 in their allotted 20 overs and lost by 50 runs to eventually get eliminated from the tournament.
A BCB official who requested anonymity stated that Taskin's non-selection against the Indians can only be explained by coach Chandika Hathurusingha. The pacer returned for the following fixture against Afghanistan and picked up 1/12 from four overs. As quoted by Cricbuzz, the official remarked:
"It is true that he (Taskin) joined the team later after missing the team bus. But why he did not play only the coach can say because whether he was in the plan or not (against India) is something that can be answered by the head coach. If there was any issue, how he played the next game against Afghanistan. He apologized to his team mates and everyone for not being able to get up on time and that's it and no need to make an issue out of it."
Hathurusingha refused to comment on the issue when reached out for the same by Cricbuzz.
"I haven't seen such a long bad patch for the batters" - Taskin Ahmed
With Bangladesh being one of the worst-performing batting units in the World Cup, the 29-year-old hopes to see the batters' prolonged lean patch coming to an end soon. He told reporters after landing in Bangladesh, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
"When you talk about the batting, if you look at the statistics, I think every [teams'] batting department suffered in the USA this time. Bowlers got a lot of help. We got better [batting] wickets in the West Indies. I haven't seen such a long bad patch for the batters in my 10 years playing for Bangladesh. I hope it goes away quickly. We never had great numbers in T20s. We are improving slowly."
Bangladesh finished the Super 8 stage winless, losing to Australia, India, and Afghanistan.