Saifuddin cleared for West Indies tour

All-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin has been cleared to go the tour of West Indies after starring in a practice session on Saturday at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.

It was surprising to see all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin appear at the Tigers' net practice at Chattogram yesterday where Shakib Al Hasan had hogged all the headlines by joining the side on Friday night.

While Shakib had overturned his status of being ruled out of the first Test, Saifuddin bowling at the nets was also quite surprising since he is neither part of the Test squad for the Sri Lanka series, nor has he featured in Tests for Bangladesh till date.

He bowled at the nets to Shakib Al Hasan and the main reason Saifuddin had been brought in was so that he could undertake a fitness test. Saifuddin hasn't played international cricket since the T20 World Cup in UAE and he was ruled out of the showpiece event with injury as well. He missed the BPL due to rehabilitation and appeared in the recently-concluded Dhaka Premier League.

National selectors told local media outlets yesterday that they wanted Saifuddin to undergo fitness test with an eye on Bangladesh's upcoming tour of West Indies in June-July where Bangladesh will play two Tests between June 16 and June 28 before playing three T20Is and as many ODIs.

Saifuddin will be part of the Tigers' setup in the tour of West Indies, a BCB official close to the development told The Daily Star today. "Saifuddin is doing fine and is fit. He is going to West Indies," he said.

Saifuddin had been doing his rehabilitation work at Feni since coming back from England following an assessment of his back injury. He has recently shown promise in the DPL and the selectors must be hoping he can regain his past form in the national setup soon.