Australia and Bangladesh will take on each other at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Monday. But before this match, the Bangla Tigers have taken a blow as two of their playing XI bowlers have been suspended with immediate effect for suspect bowling action by ICC.
Taskin Ahmed and Arafat Sunny are the two bowlers who failed the test at the ICC affiliated testing centre in Chennai. Captain Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh team management and all the fans are absolutely gutted about the decision.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board has now appealed to ICC so that they lift the ban and they are allowed to play in the ongoing ICC World T20 2016. But their bowling attack will surely get weaker without Taskin and Sunny.
In that case, Bangladesh can look up to Mustafizur Rahman, who has recovered from his side strain that forced him out of the Asia Cup T20 2016, ahead of the World T20. He was not risked against Pakistan as the physio wanted to give him more time.
"Mustafizur is getting better. Coming off that injury is not easy. What I'm saying is that even if he is 20 percent fit, he has to play, as we don't have any options," Mortaza was quoted as saying by bdnews24.
"If we had Taskin, Mustafizur would have been more effective. Because [Mustafizur] is just getting back in the groove.
"He could have played a supporting role to the main bowler. We will decide after seeing him in the morning of the match."
But if Mustafizur plays against Australia and is on his rhythm, Steve Smith and co. are up for a real test of character then. The wicket at the Chinnaswamy Stadium as we saw during the Sri Lanka vs West Indies game, was on the slower side. And Mustafizur can be very deadly in such wickets. One can expect a good encounter when these two teams take the field in a must-win situation, Monday.
