‘Umpires ke liye khushi ka maahaul’ – Fans react as Shakib Al Hasan opts out of Indian T20 League 2023 due to availability issues

The Kolkata-based franchise, who started their Indian T20 League 2023 campaign with a 7-run loss against Punjab on April 1, has suffered a major setback as Bangladesh veteran allrounder Shakib Al Hasan has decided to withdraw his name from the tournament. He had not even joined the team yet. Shakib spoke to the Kolkata team management from Bangladesh itself and explained his decision.

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib has formally informed the Kolkata-based franchise of his unavailability for the season. He is believed to have pulled out of the league for international commitments and personal reasons. Shakib was bought by Kolkata in the mini auction this season for INR 1.50 crore. Interestingly, no other team had bid for him.

Although the franchise initially believed that he could play in the Indian T20 League right away after the white ball series against Ireland that ended on March 31, it is understood that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has refused to release the two players, Shakib and Liton Das, insisting that they be available for the Test taking place in Mirpur. BCB chief also Nazmul Hassan stated on this.

“We will let them (the Bangladesh players) go to the Indian 20 League in accordance with what we informed the tournament about their availability. We haven’t changed our decision,” said Hassan.

Poor performance by Kolkata in the first match

Talking about Kolkata’s first match, Kolkata won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the decision proved wrong as Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa got them off to a flier against the new ball which hardly did anything for the seamers. The brilliant start set the tone for the middle-order batters and they ended the innings with a score of  191 runs.

Chasing the target, Kolkata started really badly as they lost their first three wickets on the score of just 29 runs. However, there was a resurrecting job done by Venkatesh Iyer, who was drafted in as an Impact player, and Nitish Rana but the latter fell to Raza and Rinku Singh fell early. And then it started raining as the Punjab-based franchise won the match by DLS method.

Here’s how fans reacted:

Huge loss to Bangladesh GDP

— ReSea Rasllin (@WrestleHumour) April 3, 2023

https://twitter.com/Dhoni_Era07/status/1642886042091913217?s=20

fb reach gya kkr ka

— BA₹UN (@BarunHazra18) April 3, 2023

https://twitter.com/deepak_das_07/status/1642887799362973697?s=20

Kis team me tha ?

— Yash Wardhan (@wardhantweets) April 3, 2023

Unprofessionalism at it's peak.

— Saptarshi Choudhuri সপ্তর্ষি চৌধুরী (@SaptarshiChou18) April 3, 2023

https://twitter.com/Forever65780043/status/1642886663218003970?s=20

*Anger issues

— SuryaVirat (@Sudhir44612324) April 3, 2023