BBL 2020-21: Imran Tahir pulls out of the tournament citing personal reasons

Melbourne Renegades suffered a major blow as Imran Tahir pulled out of the KFC BBL citing personal reasons. Tahir’ participation in the BBL was delayed in December after the Australian government mandated a 14-day quarantine period.

The Renegades had signed several spinners which includes Mohammad Nabi, Noor Ahmad, Imad Wasim and Tahir. Renegades coach, Michael Klinger stated that while Tahir’s absence was a huge blow, it would give Noor Ahmad a chance to showcase his skills.

“Unfortunately, Imran is not coming for personal reasons,” Klinger said. “He’s a great player so it is a loss. But at the same time we’ve seen Noor Ahmad a couple of games ago, a bowler who people haven’t seen that much, it might actually work in our favour.”

Also Read: Virat Kohli Wins ICC Male Cricketer Of The Decade Award, MS Dhoni Receives Spirit Of Cricket Award

“He’ll now be able to play a fair chunk of that back end of the season, with Imad Wasim. Nabi has to go home for international duty. It is a loss but at the same time what a huge opportunity for young Noor to come in and have a huge impact on the BBL,” Klinger added.

Melbourne Renegades after suffered two heavy losses this campaign. Their last match against Sydney Thunder resulted in a 129 run loss, the second largest defeat in BBL history, with the first one coming just two weeks before, in their loss against Sydney Sixers.

Klinger said that the mood in the camp was still upbeat, inspite of the heavy losses. “The mood is still pretty good because we know what we’re capable of doing,” he said. “We saw in game one how well we played. We know we’ve got the ability in the group to really come out and perform well,” he said.