Taskin Ahmed, the Bangladesh pacer, reportedly apologized for missing the team bus ahead of the India game in the recent T20 World Cup 2024. India defeated Bangladesh in a Super 8 game in the just concluded ICC T20 World Cup.
Several questions were raised when Bangladesh chose to field only two pace bowlers against India in their Super 8 match and dropped Taskin from the playing XI.
The two teams met in North Sound and saw India batting first and posting 196/6 in 20 overs with Hardik Pandya top-scoring with 50*. Bangladesh had opted for Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Mustafizur Rahman as pacers in their XI.
In response, Bangladesh managed 146/8 with captain Najmul Hossain Shanto making 40. Kuldeep Yadav took three wickets for India as Men in Blue won by 50 runs.
Taskin Ahmed missed the team bus before the India game: BCB official
Cricbuzz understands that the BCB opted to keep one of the touring party’s officials at the team hotel after they were unable to contact the pacer since he was not answering the phone.
There is widespread conjecture that head coach Chandika Hathurusingha chose not to include him in the XI, even though the official denies this.
“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 (Chandika Hathurusingha).
If there was any issue (between coach and the player) how he played the next game against Afghanistan,” he said. “He apologized to his teammates 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,” a BCB official told Cricbuzz.
Bangladesh had a chance to qualify for the semi-finals in their match against Afghanistan, but after losing 2-3 early wickets, the team management decided to focus on the win, instead of qualification as they needed to reach the target in certain overs.
However, Afghanistan managed to defeat Bangladesh and qualified for the semis in T20 World Cup for the first time.
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