Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a 23-member preliminary squad on Thursday for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe.
There were no surprises when the Akram Khan-led selection panel trimmed the squad from the 32-member pre-conditioning camp for the Zimbabwe trip where Shakib Al Hasan’s men will play a Test and five one-day internationals during the month-long tour.
The selected players has been asked to report to coach Sarwar Imran, who has been given the responsibility to monitor the skill training camp until the new head coach Stuart Law joins the team at 8am on Sunday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
“Actually there is hardly any scope for us to make any major changes in the team as we don’t have enough back-up players. As I said earlier, we want to continue with the team which has been playing good cricket for last two years,” said chief selector Akram.
“But we have problems with some batting positions, so we have to work on it. There were some players in the 32-member squad who were good performers in the domestic competition, but they were left out from the 23-member squad because they were beaten to the post by established players in the national team,” he added.
The former national skipper was however worried with the pace department especially after Shahadat Hossain was sidelined by a twisted big toe while playing football in Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday.
“Rajib (Shahadat Hossain) was under consideration and it was a setback as he had to be left out from the team due to injury. We are really worried about our pace department because we don’t have enough pacers in the pipeline. It will really be a big problem for us if any other pacer in the preliminary squad suffers injury,” said Akram.
The selectors kept two wicketkeepers in the squad. Dhiman Ghosh, who performed impressively in the National Cricket League did not get the nod in the pre-conditioning camp’s squad; instead Sahagir Hossain was included in the side along with regular keeper Mushfiqur Rahim.
“Dhiman played good cricket in the domestic competitions but what we felt was that he needed more time,” explained Akram.
The chief selector said that they were looking forward to the practice matches. “We will closely watch the practice matches so that we can take some decision regarding a few places,” said Akram.
The national selectors are likely to announce the 15-member final squad within the first week of July.
SQUAD
Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Tamim Iqbal (vice-captain), Imrul Kayes, Junaed Siddiqui, Mohammad Ashraful, Rokibul Hassan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wicketkeeper), Mahmudullah Riyad, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Sohrawardi Shuvo, Nazmul Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Alok Kapali, Syed Rasel, Jahurul Islam, Robiul Islam, Shuvogata Hom Chowdhury, Sahagir Hossain (wicketkeeper), Nasir Hossain and Mohammad Elias.
-With The Daily Star input
