T20 World Cup 2021 | Shakib Al Hasan is available for the match against Scotland despite IPL tiredness, confirms Mahmudullah

10/17/2021

Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah has confirmed that Shakib Al Hasan is available for their first game in the showpiece event against Scotland on Sunday, October 17 despite coming off IPL tiredness. Shakib was part of the IPL 2021 runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders and has joined the team straight-up.

Bangladesh struggled in their two warm-up games against Sri Lanka and Ireland respectively. They lost both the games as they managed to amass only 144/7 and 144 against Sri Lanka and Ireland respectively. Shakib can provide stability and experience in the playing XI. Mahmudullah has confirmed that Shakib is available to play against Scotland.

''Shakib is available. Probably he is a bit tired after coming back from the IPL but he is there with us,'' Mahmudullah said.

The Bangladesh skipper added that the team is not bothered what people say as they believe in their own ability.

''I am not bothered what others are saying and I feel as a team we have the ability. We are not bothered about the practice games as we missed few players and now we know what we have to do. We will play hard cricket and if we can play to our potential result will take care of itself. We have to cross a few barriers and we want to go step by step and I hope if we can play good cricket tomorrow we can go a long way," the Bangladesh skipper told the reporters.

The 35-year-old concluded by saying that the team is not too much concerned about the poor form of Mushfiqur Rahim. The wicket-keeper batsman managed to score only 39 runs in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand at home. Furthermore, he scored 0, 13, and 4 against Oman A, Sri Lanka, and Ireland respectively.

''We are not concerned about Mushfiqur form and he will come back. He just needs one good innings to regain his form and it might be tomorrow. We all know about his capability and we fully back him," the 35-year-old concluded.

Bangladesh is slotted alongside Scotland, Papua New Guinea and co-hosts Oman in group B of the first round of the T20 WC.