Sikandar Raza beats bone marrow infection to return to action

Sikandar Raza is back in the Zimbabwe squad for the one-day practice match against Bangladesh. Raza had been out of action for an indefinite time after he had suffered an infection in his bone marrow. 

The infection was suspected to be cancerous at one stage. He underwent surgery on April 2 to remove the tumour and was cleared of any serious illness but the recovery time was supposed to take several weeks. 

"I had pain in my right arm during the Abu Dhabi Tests," Raza told ESPNcricinfo. "We treated like it was muscular pain initially but the pain kept getting worse. I remember staying up all night, unable to sleep despite having sleeping pills. That's how I played the Test matches.”

"After coming home, the ultrasound showed that the muscles are all fine. The MRI showed that I had a foreign or alien substance on my bone marrow. Seeing this the surgeon told me that this substance could make my shoulder bone so weak that I could fracture it by just throwing a ball,” Raza said then. 

Zimbabwe suffered a defeat in the one-off Test against Bangladesh and would look to turn fortunes for themselves in the limited-overs fixtures. The ODI series will commence on Friday (July 16, 2021) while the T20Is begin on July 23.