‘We’ve done it before’ – turnarounds Tigers can draw from

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been ruled out of the Asia Cup and is on his way back to Dhaka with a flare-up of his long-standing left little finger injury, team manager Khaled Mahmud informed today. According to Mahmud, Shakib boarded the 4:00pm flight to Dhaka, and will go to either Melbourne or New York for surgery. 

Shakib had earlier been ruled out of the Asia Cup Super Four match against Pakistan with a flare-up of his long-standing finger injury which he sustained during the tri-series final against Sri Lanka in January this year. 

"He will be out for four to six weeks," Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) cricket operations chairman Akram Khan told reporters during the match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi today. "The pain had increased over the last few days and the physio [Thihan Chandramohan] tried his best to get him on the field, but the pain was too much.

"I would like to thank Shakib for playing [the first four matches] with the pain he had."

Akram informed that the surgery will keep him out of action for four to six weeks.  

Earlier, team manager Mahmud said that Shakib was finding it difficult to even grip the bat. 

He had gone for a scan on Monday, the day following the Bangladesh-s three-run win over Afghanistan, which the team management said was routine. However, while not revealing the contents of the scan, team manager Khaled Mahmud had said that Shakib was a 50-50 chance of playing the Pakistan game. 

His participation in the ongoing Asia Cup was in doubt until it was decided that he would possibly go for a surgery before the home series against Zimbabwe next month. He had said in the lead-up to the tournament that while there was not much problem bowling his left-arm spin, he was finding it difficult to bat.  

Bangladesh Test and T20I captain Shakib Al Hasan is currently lying with his left arm in a sling in Apollo Hospital. By the time he had come back from the Asia Cup in the UAE on Wednesday, unable to even grip a bat after batting and bowling in four games, his left little finger had swollen to twice its size. Shakib picked up the injury in a match against Sri Lanka in January this year, and wanted to have surgery before the Asia Cup. He was however not allowed to do so despite publicly stating his intentions.

On Wednesday he wanted to fly to either New York or Melbourne for surgery as quickly as possible, but such was the severity of his condition that doctors barred him from flying. He had to be admitted to hospital and have a substantial amount of pus removed from his infected finger and cannot depart until the infection has subsided.

The following is a timeline of how things got to this stage:

January 27, 2018, Dhaka: In the tri-series final against Sri Lanka, Shakib's dive to stop a single resulted in him dislocating his left little finger upon impact with the ground. Immediately attended by the team physio, Shakib was rushed to Apollo hospital for further treatment and played no further part in the 79-run defeat.

"The X-ray did not reveal any fracture. However, there is subluxation or a joint sprain at the base of the little finger on his left hand. He has been assessed by a cosmetic surgeon and necessary repairs have been done. The affected finger will have to be immobilised for at least a week before further assessment is made."-- Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief physician Debashish Chowdhury. Shakib missed the following Test and T20I series.

March 15, 2018, Colombo: "He is on his way here. He will have to be assessed. We will have a look at him to see if he is fit enough to play. And if he is then obviously with someone of his class and calibre they would make it into the side." -- Acting Bangladesh coach Courtney Walsh. Shakib played the last two matches of the Nidahas Trophy.

August 9, 2018, Dhaka: "I feel the sooner the surgery is done, the better. I think it should be done because I don't want to play without being fully fit. So, if I think along those lines then having surgery before the Asia Cup is normal. Most probably it will take place before the Asia Cup," -- Shakib upon his arrival to Dhaka after a month long tour of the West Indies.

"The operation will most probably take place in Australia under Hoy's guidance. As far as I know, Shakib is going to perform Hajj. He can do it before Hajj but once again nothing is confirmed yet."-- Chowdhury

"Coach Steve Rhodes preferred the surgery before the Asia Cup, but when I met with him today, I said it would be better to do it before the Zimbabwe series. The Asia Cup this time is already tough and it will be a psychological disadvantage if Shakib is not there. I can't imagine playing the Asia Cup without him. We will sit with Shakib and discuss everything soon."-- BCB president Nazmul Hassan

August 15, 2018, Dhaka: "Shakib rang me before leaving [for Hajj] and asked me what he should do. I just told him that if you have pain and feel that it will create problems, then you take the decision about the surgery and I also told him that if you feel it will be possible for you to play the Asia Cup then you do it after the tournament. It will good for the team and it is you who has to take the decision." -- Hassan

September 28, 2018, Dhaka: "When I left my team and returned home because of the pain in my hand, I did not understand that I would face such a bad situation. After coming back home, because of intense pain and my hand swelling alarmingly I had to be admitted to hospital and have a surgery. Around 60-70 milligrams of pus was extracted from my finger. Thanks to your prayers, I was saved from a major misfortune. I will have to have another surgery very quickly.

"I request you to keep praying for me. Your prayers and love will help me recover quickly and represent Bangladesh. Thank you."-- Shakib, in a Facebook post.

It was learnt that Shakib's finger was indeed in a critical stage. Doctors have said that if the pus was not removed in time, it was no longer a question of his career but the continued use of his hand. Even if that is an exaggeration, the bare facts reveal that things had gotten to the stage where an emergency procedure was needed -- even though Shakib was desperate to have surgery abroad as soon as possible, he had to have it in Dhaka.

Now, although the left-armer is out of that kind of danger, he may be out of action for up to three months.

As has happened before, a player's health became secondary to the short-term need of the team, regardless of the long-term dangers to the individual. A board is supposed to be structured so that these eventualities can be dealt with professionally and such desperate decisions as forcing a player to play against his will are avoided. Instead, the president himself publicly urged the player to play, hijacking the function of the medical team.

Given that the infection did not happen overnight but rather built through the Asia Cup, it has to be asked how team physio Thihan Chandramohan had allowed Shakib to keep playing and if the eventual result was this. And, if something untoward does happen -- many will say it has already -- will the president answer for sending Shakib to play in the first place?

Despite Bangladesh drawing their recent two-Test home series against Zimbabwe 1-1, many will have given the visitors the edge as they stayed competitive throughout the series while Bangladesh's batting failed abjectly in the first Test, and it remains the Tigers' biggest concern.

The home batsmen eventually managed to snap the streak of eight consecutive sub-200 scores in the second Test in Mirpur, where Mushfiqur Rahim struck a magnificent double hundred and Mominul Haque registered his sixth Test ton. Stand-in skipper Mahmudullah Riyad joined in with his second Test ton in the second innings.

Riding on these contributions, Bangladesh managed to avoid humiliation and won the second Test comprehensively by 218 runs to level the after the 151-run loss in Sylhet.

The upcoming series against the West Indies will be even tougher for the hosts and according to head coach Steve Rhodes, the hard-fought series against Zimbabwe would do a lot of good for Bangladesh against the Caribbean side.

"I think at Sylhet and Mirpur, Zimbabwe made us fight all the way. Some people might be a little bit surprised at the1-1 result and the hard-fought series. I think it will do us a lot of good going into a contest against the West Indies, who are obviously going to be tough opposition. We needed to go there with some tough games under our belt. Zimbabwe proved to be a tough opposition. I was very pleased with the Mirpur result but as you said, we wanted more than 1-1," Rhodes told reporters after the Tigers reached Chattogram yesterday.

Whether it is the team combination, the over-dependency on spin on home soil or even the top-order failures, there are a few areas of concerns for the Tigers as they prepare for a stronger opposition in the form of West Indies, who will have their tails up after a good outing in India in the ODI series.

"To be perfectly honest, we don't have many concerns. We are looking forward to the series against West Indies. They are excellent opposition, as we saw in June or July this year. Conditions are little bit different in Bangladesh, so hopefully we will have good games against them. They have got some injury problems with Jason Holder going home. We are without Tamim Iqbal; we wish him all the best to get back as quick as he could. It will be a good contest," he said.

Facing quality fast bowling has always been a vulnerability of Bangladesh batsmen and Rhodes said that the likes of Shannon Gabriel, who proved vicious against Bangladesh during their last tour earlier this year, would once again play a crucial role in the Test series.

However, he added that they were not worried about the opposition and were rather focusing on their own strengths.

The wicket at the Zahur Ahmed Stadium in Chattogram pitch has always been a batsman's paradise, but when it comes to gaining the advantage of home conditions the Bangladesh team management has not been able to utilise the luxury properly in recent times.

"I had a good look with the captain [Shakib Al Hasan] and curator [Zahid Reza]. What we are doing now is gather as much information as possible from the curator. We are lucky that Shakib has played here a lot. He knows the wickets well, more than I do. It is a learning curve for me. You get wickets right and wrong. I won't be saying how it's going to play," he said.