Pacer to miss Australia tour as Bangladesh wait on injuries

Bangladesh will be forced to tackle ICC World Test Championship pacesetter Australia next month without key fast bowler Ebadot Hossain.

The Asian side are scheduled to take on Australia in a two-match Test series that commences in Darwin on August 13 as part of the ongoing World Test Championship and Ebadot will instead stay in Bangladesh as he gets ready to welcome his first child.

The news on Ebadot has been offset with confirmation that pace spearhead Taskin Ahmed has withdrawn from the Lankan Premier League (LPL) to instead prepare for the Australia tour, where Bangladesh will attempt to improve on their current fourth-place on the World Test Championship standings.

Taskin had been scheduled to feature for the Jaffna Kings at the LPL, but the 31-year-old has decided to do everything he can to prepare for the Australia tour.

“Yeah it is mainly for preparation (for the Australia tour)," Taskin told The Daily Sun.

"We played six back-to-back matches in Zimbabwe, maybe I would have got four matches there (in LPL), after my stint there if I return home and immediately go to Australia my Test match preparation would be hampered, despite a little loss I thought it’s OK. 

"The Australia series won’t come around often, that’s why I took the decision, even after having the NOC, so I pulled out from the LPL."

Just whether star pacer Nahid Rana will be fit for the opening Test against Australia remains to be seen, with Bangladesh still awaiting results of scans the star pacer recently had done on his side injury.

The team are also hopeful experienced batter Litton Das will be able to shake off his calf complaint to feature against Australia, with Bangladesh set to arrive Down Under at the start of next month ahead of a three-day warm-up fixture in Darwin against a Cricket Australia XI from August 3.

That contest will provide Bangladesh with some valuable practice ahead of the first Test at the same venue and batting coach Mohammad Ashraful is hoping he will have a full complement of players to choose from.

"It will be tough in Australia, but the positive is that we will travel there early...10–12 days in advance," Ashraful said.

"We will have the opportunity to play a three-day practice match, and hopefully, if all our players are fit, we will be able to perform well there."

While Bangladesh's pace attack has won much of the plaudits for the side's excellent recent form, Ashraful has been happy with the efforts of his batting group despite a slip up in their most recent Test outing against Zimbabwe in Harare when they were dismissed for just 140 and 185 in a massive defeat.

Ashraful is confident his batters will be able to turn that around in Australia despite the strong squad the Aussies recently name, pointing to their good efforts against Pakistan in May when they registered an impressive 2-0 series sweep.

"Our batters did really well over the last seven months. One series can go wrong; one Test match went bad, but in the four Tests prior to that, our batters played extremely well," he said.

"See, we can lose one or two games in different conditions. After playing so well over the last seven months, there is no reason to be demoralised after losing one or two matches, I believe. Obviously, they have gained experience from playing in different conditions."

Series schedule:

First Test: August 13-17, Darwin
Second Test: August 22-26, Mackay