Uncapped batsmen Nasir Hossain and Shubhagata Hom found their places in the 15-member Bangladesh national cricket squad for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe featuring a Test and five one-day internationals.
The team was announced late on Friday after a meeting of the Bangladesh Cricket Board in Sylhet.
Roqibul Hasan, Alok Kapali and Sohrawardi Shuvo, who played against Australia in Bangladesh’s last international series in April, were left out of the team for Zimbabwe tour.
Alok and Sohrawardi, however, were kept standby along with Naeem Islam, Syed Rasel and Sahgir Hossain, but Roqibul did not even find a place there.
It was earlier reported that the selectors had picked Roqibul only to drop him to make room for Nasir, a middle-order batsman-cum-off-spinner, at the insistence of a BCB director.
The other uncapped batsman, Shubhagata was in the squad for Australia series but did not play any game there.
Former skipper Moham-mad Ashraful and batsman Junaed Siddique returned to the side after missing out on the Australia series.
Another notable inclusion in the side is pace bowler Robiul Islam, who was in the squad during Bangladesh’s last Test series against England in 2010, but was never considered for one-dayers.
Bangladesh will leave for Zimbabwe on July 27 and will begin the tour with a three-day practice match two days later. The only Test match of the series will be played in August 4-8 in Harare.
The five ODIs will be played between August 12 and 21.
Squad: Sakib al Hasan (captain), Tamim Iqbal (vice-captain), Imrul Kayes, Junaed Siddique, Moham-mad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Nazmul Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Robiul Islam, Shubhagata Hom, Nasir Hossain.
-With New Age input
