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Injured Salma Khatun out for Bangladesh Women

Allrounder Salma Khatun will miss Bangladesh Women's tour of Ireland next month, where they will play two ODIs and two T20s

Mohammad Isam
Mohammad Isam
28-Aug-2016
Salma Khatun injured her shoulder during training a couple of weeks ago  •  International Cricket Council

Salma Khatun injured her shoulder during training a couple of weeks ago  •  International Cricket Council

Allrounder Salma Khatun will miss Bangladesh Women's tour of Ireland next month, where they will play two ODIs and two T20s. Salma injured her shoulder during training a couple of weeks ago and hasn't sufficiently recovered.
Apart from Salma, Sharmin Akhter and Shaila Sharmin have been dropped from the squad that played their last international assignment - the 2016 World T20 - with pace bowler Suraiya Azmin and allrounder Jannatul Ferdous being their replacements in the 14-member squad.
They will play the T20s on September 5 and 6 while the two ODIs will be held on September 8 and 10. All four matches will be held at the Bready Cricket Club in Londonderry.
Athar Ali Khan, the selector for women's team and the tour manager, said that the team will miss the services of Salma but they have legspinners and a left-arm spinner to counter Ireland.
"We will definitely miss the experience of Salma who is one of the leading players in the world," Athar said. "She did join the camp but could not bowl and we thought it was in the best interest of the team that she was given time to recover as we have a long season ahead with the Asia Cup, World Cup qualifiers and hopefully the World Cup coming.
"However, we still have a lot of variation in bowling, especially in the spin department. There are two legspinners (Fahima Khatun and Rumana Ahmed) and Nahida (Akter) is a wily left-arm spinner. Newcomer Jannatul Ferdous is a very exciting prospect who bowls offbreaks, can bat in the middle order and is a fine fielder. She has caught the eye."
Athar said that batting remains a worry but expects someone like Farzana to come good on tour. "The batting is a little bit of a worry as the openers Ayasha Rahman and Sanjida Islam have not been among the runs recently," he said. "I am expecting Farzana Hoque who has been our best batter for a while to take the lead here and the others can bat around her.
"We are a confident unit. Bangladesh is ranked above Ireland and our goal is to win the matches but the different conditions will be a challenge and we have to work really, really hard."
In the World T20 this year, Bangladesh lost all their group matches. Their last ODIs were in October 2015, when they lost both games to Pakistan. They have, so far, played two completed ODIs against Ireland, winning one. In the two teams' T20I head-to-head, Bangladesh lead 2-1.

Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84