Tamim Iqbal to miss New Zealand Tests due to thumb injury

Star Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal is all set to miss Bangladesh's upcoming two-match Test series against New Zealand in New Zealand. Tamim is struggling with a thumb injury and the recovery is not as per expectations. Tamim consulted a specialist in England who advised him to skip the tour as his thumb will need another one month to heal.

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"He (Tamim) met the physician and they have advised him to take a one-month rest though he won't require any surgery," Debashish told Cricbuzz. "In that case, he's missing the New Zealand tour."

Bangladesh is expected to depart for New Zealand in the second half of December. They'll kick off the tour on January 1 at Bay Oval in Tauranga. The second game will be played from January 9 in Christchurch.

Tamim has not played a lot of cricket lately owing to various injuries. Earlier, he was out of action due to a knee injury which he picked up in the Zimbabwe ODIs which ruled him out of the following T20I series and the home series against Australia and New Zealand.

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Tamim recovered and was all set to be back on the field but injured his thumb while playing in the Everest Premier League, which forced him to miss the 20-20 World Cup and the ongoing Pakistan series. Tamim was hopeful of recovering before the New Zealand tour but he will have to wait a bit longer to don the Bangladesh jersey again.

"The fracture had almost healed but my thumb remained swollen," Tamim said. "So we wanted to have another X-ray, which revealed that there was a fracture. Probably there were two, but it didn't come out in the first scan. The finger has gone back into the split. I can't move it. The whole process has to start again."