‘CSK wanted to take me, but injury destroyed everything’ – Mohammad Saifuddin on playing in the IPL

Mohammad Saifuddin, the Bangladesh fast bowler, has rued missing out on playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The speedster has come up the ranks in the last three years and has been a genuine wicket-taker for the Tigers in ODI and T20I cricket. However, a recurring back injury not only kept him out of the national team, but also dashed his IPL dreams.

After performing to expectations for the Comilla Victorians in the 2019 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), he missed the previous edition of the tournament owing to injury. About his IPL dream, the 23-year-old stated that he was close to playing for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as well as the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

I was close to a chance: Mohammad Saifuddin

Srinivas Chandrasekharan, who works with both Bangladesh and the Sunrisers, told VVS Laxman about Saifuddin. At that time, the Chittagong-born pacer was busy plying his trade for his country in the World Cup. Saifuddin made the revelations during a live chat with BDcrictime.

“You can say playing in the IPL is my dream. When I played in the last match at the Lord’s, (against Pakistan in the 2019 World Cup), VVS Laxman came to enquire about me. Our (Bangladesh) performance analyst is India’s Srinivas Chandrasekharan and he works in the Sunrisers Hyderabad as well. He wanted to know how would I fare in the IPL. But injury destroyed everything,” he said.

On CSK, Saifuddin said that he had a long discussion with Lakshmi Narayan, who has worked both at CSK and at the Dhaka Platoon as a performance analyst. The seamer said that he shared a video where MS Dhoni, the CSK captain, seemed to have shown interest in him. But then, untimely injuries didn’t work out well for the talented fast bowler.

“I was close to a chance. I heard that CSK had a discussion about me. Laxmi was our (Dhaka Platoon) video analyst as well. He told me, ‘Dhoni has talked about you’. I replied, ‘You do everything, but have allergy towards Bangladesh cricketers’.

“He said, ‘See, I’m not lying’. I said, ‘We are not someone to be pushed back’. He replied ‘See, I sent this bowling video of yours to Dhoni’. In the video, I could see Dhoni telling, ‘Ok’. They wanted to take me, but I missed due to injury. Hence they didn’t show interest in me and Josh Hazlewood was picked,” Saifuddin added.