Hardik Pandya ends Shoriful Islam's T20 World Cup 2024 campaign even before it begins

Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam is under major doubt to feature in his team's ICC T20 World Cup 2024 opening match against Sri Lanka.

Shoriful Islam is among the 4 frontline pacers along with Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, and Tanzim Shakib who have arrived in the USA for the WC. All of them were in action yesterday during Bangladesh's T20 World Cup warm-up game against Rohit Sharma's team India at the Nassau County Stadium in New York.

The Bangladeshi bowling line-up had done very well initially to restrict the Indian team but towards the back-end of the innings, the situation changed. Shoriful Islam had a decent outing with the ball but his decent afternoon was shortened after he was taken off the field. Following his departure, the opposing team posted 183 runs as the target.

Why was Shoriful Islam taken off the field?

During the final over of his quota of 4 overs, Shoriful Islam was hit by the ball on the palm of his left hand. In the penultimate delivery of the over, Hardik Pandya had smashed the ball straight towards Shoriful with all his strength. While trying to stop the ball, the Bangladeshi pacer was brutally hit on his left palm.

The first look of the replay did not look so well as there was evident swelling on Shoriful Islam's hand with the outer part ripping apart and bleeding. The medical team was quickly called upon and one of the staff was holding on to the bleeding area tightly as the bowler marched towards the dressing room.

It was a big blow for Najmul Hossain Shanto's side which was expecting Shoriful Islam to lead the bowling attack with Mustafizur Rahman. Islam had left the field without bowling the final over as he was directly rushed to a nearby hospital.

According to reports, the bowler received six stitches on his left hand and he won't be able to attend any net session in the upcoming days. It is being said that the injury will take at least one week to recover fully. His left palm immediately got swollen after enduring the hit with the area between his palm and the index finger receiving six stitches.

If that injury takes a week to recover, then Shoriful Islam will not be able to take part in Bangladesh's T20 WC opener against Sri Lanka. The Bangla Tigers will take on the Lanka Lions on June 8 at the stadium in Dallas. If Shoriful doesn't recover in time, then the team management will have to choose from their two fast bowling reserves.

Hasan Mahmud could be the one who gets a call from the bench to feature in the match against Lanka. But before being taken off, Shoriful Islam had exceptional figures of 1/26.

Bangladesh's T20 WC 2024 schedule