After the recently concluded World Cup in England, Bangladesh is scheduled to tour Sri Lanka. Just after putting all the retirement talks to rest, Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza is set to miss the Sri Lanka tour as he sustained an injury during the training session at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Dhaka.

Debashis Chowdhury, the Bangladesh Cricket Board senior physician stated that, “Mortaza (Mashrafe) injured his left hamstring during training today. He received immediate MSK ultrasound examination which has revealed a grade 1 injury.”

In Mashrafe’s absence, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has appointed Tamim Iqbal as interim captain as Mortaza’s deputy Shakib-al-Hasan has also been rested for the series.

When asked about his point of view about the retirement talks, Mortaza said, “To be honest, I don’t feel embarrassed or disappointed with it (retirement talks). It’s normal everyone will consider my performance from their point of view.”

While talking about the similarities in Mortaza’s and MS Dhoni’s situation, the 35-year-old all-rounder said, “As a player, I am not close to M.S. Dhoni as he scored over 10,000 runs in ODIs. But at least in every press conference, he has been asked the same question (retirement). I think we should see it normally.”

While Dhoni, who made a fifty in India’s losing semi-final to New Zealand, Mashrafe could not contribute much for his team in the World Cup.

While talking about his performance in the recently concluded ICC mega event, the right-arm pacer with 266 ODI wickets for Bangladesh said, “Being a player I could not deliver my best in World Cup, both as a captain and a player and the team also failed to go to the semi-final. So it’s normal the question (about retirement) will be raised. I also see it this way. There’s is nothing else to consider.”

(With AFP inputs)