T20 World Cup | Rubel Hossain replaces injured Mohammad Saifuddin in Bangladesh squad

Bangladesh bowling-allrounder Mohammad Saifuddin has been ruled out of the T20 World Cup 2021 due to a back injury and Rubel Hossain will replace him in the squad. Saifuddin played all of the fixtures for Bangladesh so far and scalped five wickets across four matches in the T20 World Cup. He also contributed with the bat against Papua New Guinea scoring an unbeaten 19 off six balls. Bangladesh, had a disappointing start to their Super 12 opening fixture as they suffered a five-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka. Saifuddin leaked 38 runs and clinched one wicket in the match. 

"Bangladesh have officially replaced the injured Mohammad Saifuddin with Rubel Hossain in their squad for the remainder of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.The Event Technical Committee, made up of Chris Tetley (Head of Events, Chair), Clive Hitchcock (ICC Senior Cricket Operations Manager), Rahul Dravid and Dhiraj Malhotra (BCCI Representatives), Simon Doull and Ian Bishop (Independent Members) approved the request on Tuesday,” the ICC said in a statement. 

Rubel Hossain was initially named as a traveling reserve but has been moved into the main squad to replace injured Saifuddin, and will be available for selection in the fixture against England. Rubel has so far featured in 28 T20Is for Bangladesh, and has scalped  28 wickets with an economy rate of 9.45. The match against England on Wednesday will be very crucial for the Mahmadullah-led side to stay alive in the competition. Bangladesh are pooled in Group 1 alongside England, West Indies, Australia, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.