<
>

Injured Nurul Hasan out of Asia Cup, BCB likely to announce squad by Thursday

Nurul Hasan in action AFP/Getty Images

Nurul Hasan is ruled out of this upcoming Asia Cup after he underwent surgery on his injured index finger in Singapore on Monday. Nurul suffered the blow during the second T20I against Zimbabwe on July 31 and was ruled out of the remainder of the Zimbabwe tour.

Bangladesh are dealing with quite a few injury concerns, which has forced the BCB to request the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) for an extension to announce their T20I squad for the Asia Cup, beginning on August 27 in UAE. They are likely to announce the squad by Thursday.

The BCB's chief sports physician Debashis Chowdhury, who has accompanied Nurul to Singapore, said that the Bangladesh T20I captain would need four weeks to recover from the surgery.

"A closed reduction and pinning procedure was performed on [Nurul Hasan] Sohan's left index finger by hand surgeon Anthony Foo at the Raffles Hospital this afternoon. Recovery is estimated at three to four weeks," Chowdhury said. Nurul and Chowdhury will return to Dhaka on Tuesday.

Nurul is the latest player to be ruled out of the Asia Cup, after Litton Das' hamstring strain put him out of contention. Pacer Mustafizur Rahman missing Bangladesh's second ODI against Zimbabwe on Sunday, due to soft tissue edema, is another cause for concern. Allrounder Mohammad Saifuddin is also yet to recover from a long-standing back problem.

Shoriful Islam and Mushfiqur Rahim were also hit on their knee and thumb respectively, during the first ODI, although they continued to play in the series.