Bangladesh on Tuesday have called up uncapped paceman Abu Hider and wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan in their 14-man squad for the first two Twenty20 internationals against Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe will arrive on January 11 to play four T20Is against the home side as part of their preparation for the ICC World Twenty20 scheduled to be held in India in March-April.The matches of the series will be held in Khulna city respectively on January 15, 17, 19 and 22.
Left-arm pacer Hider impressed with 21 wickets in the recent Bangladesh Premier League while Nurul also showed his talent in patches during the tournament.
Chief selector Faruk Ahmed said they are trying to find the right combination ahead of World Twenty20 and thus included some new faces.
‘This series gives us a good opportunity to see some new players before World Twenty20,’ said Faruk.
‘Hider has a good variation, so we think he could be effective in this format. Nurul is also a good batsman.’
The squad has five changes from Bangladesh’s previous Twenty20 series, also against Zimbabwe, as batsman Liton Das, Nasir Hossain, Anamul Haque, leg-spinner Jubair Hossain and pacer Kamrul Islam have been excluded.
All-rounder Shuvagata Hom, who played seven Tests and four one-day internationals but yet to make his debut in Twenty20 international, joined Hider and Nurul while vice-captain Sakib al Hasan and batsman Soumya Sarkar returned.
Sakib missed the previous series to be with his wife in USA during the birth of their first child while Soumya was left out for injury.
The exclusion of Nasir came as bit of a surprise considering his all-round ability but Faurk said
they did not want to load the squad with many
players having similar calibre.
‘We have Mahmudullah in the team, so we did not want to take Nasir,’ said Faruk. ‘Having said this however I am not writing Nasir off. We all know his capability and he can comeback any time.’
Faruk added that they picked up Shuvagata despite him being also an off-spinner-cum-batsman as they wanted to see him before the World Twenty20.
‘Our Twenty20 team is not doing well at the moment,’ Faruk said. ‘So we wanted to see all our options. This is one reason we have picked up Shuvagata.’
-With New Age input
