9:00am Monday 13th July 2009
KABIR Ali’s season of frustration continues after he was ruled out of the match up at Old Trafford.
For a man who was on the verge of getting back in the England selectors thoughts, Kabir has been having some wretched luck.
Less than two games into the season the 28-year-old tore his left hamstring running into bowl and consequently spent two months on the sidelines.
A fortnight ago the man, who has somehow only played one Test for England, was somewhere near back to his best as he took advantage of favourable conditions at Durham to take six wickets.
Yet after firing back at the Riverside, the pace ace was forced back on to the sidelines with a sore back.
“It has been a freaky kind of season for me,” Kabir said. “But this latest injury is not something to worry about.
“I was just a little sore in the back and it was thought best not to risk me.”
The decision to not put last season’s leading wicket-taker at risk meant that the player on track to take that crown this term, Chris Whelan, was forced back into action.
Director of cricket Steve Rhodes was planning to give the former Middlesex youngster a rest up at Lancashire.
Now that rest may come in the next match in the final season of the NatWest Pro40. The 40-over format is being scrapped at the end of the term in favour of a new Twenty20 competition.
From next year the new P20 tournament, which will have two division of nine, will be played in the early part of season in place of the Twenty20 Cup, which will be switched to the time of year the Pro40 takes place.
However, after last season’s relegation play-off at Glamorgan, Worcestershire Royals will face Yorkshire Carnegie on Wednesday night at New Road.
But this term is the chance for one county to be the Pro40 champions forever.
“That would be nice,” Kabir said. “We won it in 2007 and hopefully we can use it to kick start our season.
“We have had some good times in the Pro40 and it will be a little strange that this is its last year, but Twenty20 has come on leaps and bounds and is very popular.”
After taking 59 championship wickets last season, Kabir was poised for an England return until a stress fracture in his back curtailed his campaign.
But having got himself fit during an eventful winter, which saw him caught up in the Mumbai terror attacks, Kabir was named in the 30-man provisional England World Twenty20 squad.
And had he not suffered that hamstring injury at Hampshire in April, Worcestershire’s strike bowler would have joined Stephen Moore, Steve Davies and Vikram Solanki in facing Australia for the England Lions.
“All fast bowlers get injuries, mine just came at time when I had been named in an England squad,” Kabir said.
“Now I need to get myself fit and firing and I’m sure that my chance will come again.
“I want to play and enjoy bowling.”
And if Kabir can do that, the country’s top batsmen will once again sleep uneasy in their beds.
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