“I have been watching him and knowing him for a long time so I went up to him and asked him why he is not bowling enough,” Karthik said. “And what he told me is something I completely agree with. He had surgery on his left hand finger, his bowling finger. It is swollen, stiff, immobile and inflexible. So he feels he has no feeling. As a spinner, you need feeling. He also has a shoulder problem so it is a combination of both and it is difficult for him to bowl in Test cricket where you need that feeling as a spinner.”
Tamim Iqbal later said on television that if Bangladesh had deliberately selected Shakib despite the fact that he had a sore rotator cuff, then the visiting team were playing at a time when they were short on bowlers.
“Murali Karthik said Shakib was having difficulty catching the ball due to this finger injury. If that is the case, Bangladesh are playing with four frontline bowlers. The team management should clarify whether they were aware of this injury,” Tamim said.
However, BCB’s chief medical officer Dr Devashish said he was not aware of any finger or shoulder injury that was ailing Shakib.
“Shakib fractured his finger in the World Cup in India,” he said. “Before that, he had an infection due to a finger injury a few years ago. But Shakib has not complained of any finger or shoulder injury recently. But a broken finger can cause discomfort.”
Besides failing to take a wicket in the Tests, Shakib was caught in a premature reverse sweep right after Litton Das was dismissed in the first innings. Shakib is also trying something new in his batting approach, seemingly biting the string around his neck to keep his head from falling while hitting the ball.
