Mohammad Saifuddin became the centre of attention during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup when he was dropped the playing XI in the highly-intense match against Australia, report agencies.
Saifuddin was the second-highest wicket-taker (13) for Bangladesh in the cricket’s quadrennial showpiece in England in 2019. He also smashed a 58 not out from 38 balls against India.
Whose abrupt exclusion from the high-octane match raised so many questions about all including coach, captain, team management and Saifuddin himself? There were reports that he exaggerated about his back injury to avoid playing a tough match.
In a Facebook live session with Cricfrenzy.com Saifuddin cleared the air about his back injury and expressed what kind of misery he faced during that time.
The 23-year-old all-rounder said that he started to feel the back injury from the tri-nation series in Ireland where to play long he followed another pacer Rubel Hossain’s formula but it backfired on him.
“Before the World Cup, we went to play a tri-nation series in Ireland. I went Rubel bhai’s room for some reason and I saw he was flooring. I ask him why he was doing that.
He said that the tournament is very long so if he had a back pain then there will be a problem. Then it occurred to me that as Ruble Bhai is so serious, so I should also sleep by flooring,” Mohamamd Saifuddin said.
“So I got up the next morning and found something wrong. I had a back pain from U15-U19 since 2010. This was not so severe back then.
Then I told it to our physio Thihan Chandramohan tells me that nothing happened, maybe it’s because of the change of weather, it will be fine in a few days,” Saifuiddn told in the live chat session.
However, the pain started to increase day by day, while skipping the third match he played the whole tournament and then during the World Cup he felt that the pain is rising up very badly, for this reason, he had to take expensive injection before the match to minimize the pain.
But it didn’t work the pain comes again and again but after the Afghanistan match his situation becomes unbearable that he forced himself to not continue.
“So when I go to London to play the first match of the World Cup, I tell the physio that this is not possible by me. You either give me a solution or give me an injection.
Then I took an injection in the presence of Debashish Sir and Manager Sujon Sir. It was an expensive one injection is about BDT two lakh. I started to feel very good after taking the injection,” the medium fast bowler said.
“So I played the first match with South Africa and after bowling seven-eight overs I again started to feel it again. We played that match well and then I came to the dressing room and looked in the mirror and said to myself what should I do, do I have to continue to play in the World Cup or not.
I was taking treatment from our physio, it feels good when I swim but if I don’t, the pain increases again. So that’s how I actually play,” he also said.
“After playing with Afghanistan, we were on a bus journey for about 4-5 hours, but when I arrived, I couldn’t hold myself anymore, I couldn’t stand up straight.
Then I say that it’s hurting me a lot I can no longer take it anymore. I have played so many matches through the willingness of my mind and I think if I play in this match it will be worse than good. You are the team management you guys understands well do what will be good,” Saifuddin added.