Dhaka, May 21 : Veteran Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim is all set to miss the tour of the West Indies due to undertaking the Hajj pilgrimage, said a report on Saturday. The report added that with the religious pilgrimage scheduled to happen in July, Rahim will travel to Saudi Arabia on June 22. "He informed us before the Sri Lanka series that he wants to perform Hajj this year. When he got confirmation, he gave us a letter that he wanted leave. We have granted him the time. We had an initial thought that he might be available for part of the tour but he is off for the whole tour," Jalal Yunus, BCB's cricket operations chairman, was quoted as saying in the report by ESPNCricinfo. India T20I Squad vs South Africa: Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh Should be Included; Demand Brian Lara, Sunil Gavaskar.

With Rahim unavailable for the entirety of the West Indies tour, it serves as a big blow for Bangladesh which are already dealing with a host of injury issues. Taskin Ahmed is recovering from a shoulder injury while Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Shoriful Islam, and Nayeem Hasan are dealing with hand injuries. Recently, on May 18, Rahim, who is Bangladesh's most-capped Test cricketer, became the first player from his country to score more than 5000 runs in the longest format of the game en route to 105 on day three of the drawn first Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram. RCB Turns Blue! Royal Challengers Bangalore Post 'Letter' in Support of Mumbai Indians Ahead of MI vs DC IPL 2022 Match.

After the Tests against Sri Lanka are over, the report further said that Bangladesh are likely to travel to the West Indies on June 5 though the squads for the same haven't been announced yet. The tour of the Caribbean will comprise of two Tests in Antigua and St Lucia, starting from June 16. The T20Is are from July 2 to 6 in Dominica and St Lucia while the ODIs are from July 10 to 16 in Dominica. Only the Test series is part of the World Test Championship; the ODIs are not part of the Super League.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 21, 2022 04:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).