Nahid Rana Refuses To Travel To Pakistan For Bangladesh Tour, Here’s Why

Right-arm pacer Nahid Rana, along with fielding coach James Pamment and Strength and Conditioning coach Nathan Keily, have decided not to travel to Pakistan for the upcoming tour, which includes three T20Is beginning May 28. He will not travel with the touring party, which will be leaving from Dhaka for Pakistan soon.

As per reports, it’s understood that Rana took this decision after facing a troubled situation while leaving Pakistan after the Pakistan Super League (PSL) was halted abruptly due to military escalations between India and Pakistan, where a drone also fell on the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. 

Rana was playing for the Peshawar Zalmi along with his Bangladesh teammate Rishad Hossain, who, unlike Rana, will be returning to Pakistan with the national side. 

“What Nahid Rana and Rishad faced recently, you can't blame them for being traumatised,” Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Cricket Operations chairman Nazmul Fahim said, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo. 

“Which is probably why Rana has withdrawn from the tour. Among the coaching staff, James [Pamment] and Nathan [Keily], who are our fielding coach and trainer, aren't going. The rest are ready to go there.

"There were hesitations among few other players. But later, when they saw others are going, they felt that it might not be difficult to go there and they changed their initial position."

The BCB also added that these recent developments have happened despite Pakistan providing extremely stringent security measures during the cricket season. 

"I saw during the Champions Trophy how much security is provided in Pakistan. I don't think you can do more than that. The PCB chairman assured us that he would give the highest security," he said.

Notably, this was earlier supposed to be a five-match T20I series, but has now been reduced to a three-match series with all the games being played in Lahore on May 28, 30 and 31.