Bangladesh left-arm pace spearhead Shoriful Islam is a doubt for the team's first match of the Twenty20 World Cup against Sri Lanka after he split the webbing between his index and middle finger while fielding against India during the warm-up game in New York Saturday.
The injury to the left-armer's bowling hand needed six stitches and leaves him racing against time to make the Tigers’ opening game against the Lankans next Saturday in Dallas.
"He's got six stitches," Bangladesh Cricket Board physician Dr. Debashis Chowdhury said in a video message Sunday.
"Considering his importance, we are trying to give our best so that he can come back quickly," he added.
The left-arm paceman tried to stop a drive from Hardik Pandya in the final over of India's innings and was hit on his bowling hand.
He was taken off from the field for treatment.
Struggling Bangladesh, who lost the match by 60 runs, are also battling to get fellow pace bowler Taskin Ahmed fully fit for the Sri Lanka clash.
Taskin missed the recent three-match series against the United States, which Bangladesh lost 2-1.
Before that Taskin also missed the last T20 International series at home to Zimbabwe where his injury surfaced.
Both Taskin and Shoriful are an important part of Bangladesh's pace bowling attack and in good form in white-ball cricket in the last year or so.
Shoriful has played 41 T20Is and took 46 wickets while Taskin featured in 61 T20Is and bagged 64 wickets.
Bangladesh announced the squad for the T20 World Cup including Taskin despite knowing that he might miss the start or just become fit before the tournament's first game.
The men in red and green have not been able to qualify for the knockout phase of the T20 World Cup previously and are drawn in a tough Group D against Sri Lanka, South Africa, the Netherlands and Nepal.
