Nahid Rana out of the Australia Tests as Bangladesh’s pace injuries mount
A grade two side strain has ruled Nahid Rana out of Bangladesh’s two Tests in Australia next month. He is one of four frontline seamers currently unavailable to Najmul Hossain Shanto.
Jul 26, 2026
Bangladesh fly to Darwin next month without the bowler who has taken more international wickets than anyone else on the planet this year. Nahid Rana has been ruled out of both Tests against Australia after scans confirmed a grade two strain in his left side, an injury the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s medical staff have put at six to eight weeks of rehabilitation.
The maths is unforgiving. Rana felt the side go during the second T20I against Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on 17 July, which means the earliest end of that window lands after the second Test in Mackay has finished.
What Bangladesh lose
Rana is 23, stands 6ft 5in, and bowls quicker than any Bangladeshi before him. The 152 kph delivery he sent down against Pakistan remains the fastest ball recorded by a Bangladesh bowler in international cricket. This year he has taken 44 international wickets at 18.31 with four five-wicket hauls, a return no other bowler in world cricket has matched across 2026.
Take that away and the tour changes shape. Darwin and Mackay in August offer heat, humidity and pitches that reward pace and bounce, which is the combination Rana was built for. Bangladesh have played only two Tests in Australia, both on the 2003 tour, and lost each by an innings. The first of those was in Darwin as well. Twenty three years on, the one bowler who might have made the hosts genuinely uncomfortable is watching from home.
The rest of the treatment room
Rana is not the only absentee, and that is the part that should worry Najmul Hossain Shanto most. Tanzim Hasan Sakib fractured his hip bone and is not expected back until late in the year. The board’s medical team consulted a surgeon in New Zealand along with the New Zealand team physiotherapist before deciding against an operation and letting the fracture heal on its own.
Shoriful Islam picked up a grade one left hamstring strain on the same Zimbabwe tour. He is due to resume bowling on 29 July with a fitness test around 12 August, which puts him behind the first Test but potentially in the frame for the second. Mustafizur Rahman, nursing a right hamstring and calf problem, is expected to be available only after 18 August. Litton Das has been dealing with a left calf injury since June and faces the same 12 August assessment.
Add it up and Bangladesh could walk out in Darwin on 13 August without four frontline seamers and without their first choice wicketkeeper batter. Whoever fills those spots will be doing so on debut or close to it, against an attack that has been picking Test sides apart for a decade.
Australia are at full strength
The contrast is stark. Australia named Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon in a squad that carries Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Steve Smith, Travis Head and Cameron Green alongside them. No rotation, no resting of senior quicks for a two-Test series at home. Shanto welcomed it on 25 July. “Normally, I have never seen anything like this before in Bangladesh cricket,” he said. “When teams play against us, there are usually a lot of experiments. I would say this is an achievement for our team.” He is right about the compliment. His batters still have to face it.
World Test Championship points are on offer in Darwin from 13 to 17 August and in Mackay from 22 to 26 August. Bangladesh will take them wherever they can find them. On this evidence they will have to do it with a bowling attack assembled from whoever is standing.