Bangladesh on Saturday left Tamim Iqbal out of their Asia Cup squad after the opener failed to recover sufficiently from his neck injury. \u00a0Tamim, who played a phenomenal role in the last Asia Cup with four fifties to help Bangladesh finish runners-up, also missed the preceding three one-day internationals against Sri Lanka due to the same injury.\u00a0In-form opening batsman Imrul Kayes replaced Tamim in the Asia Cup squad that had no room for out-of-sorts all-rounder Mahmudullah.
\nMahmudullah, who could make just six runs in three Sri Lanka ODIs, was replaced by seaming all-rounder Ziaur Rahman, a selection which raises a question or two.
\nSelectors preferred Zia over Farhad Reza, who is in the form of his life.
\n\u2018The number seven position is proving very important and therefore, Ziaur Rahman gets in,\u2019 said chief selector Faruk Ahmed in a statement. \u2018He is in form and has been performing consistently at domestic level.
\n\u2018We will not be getting Tamim in the Asia Cup. He has not recovered from an injury and it may take another week or so for him to return.
\n\u2018Under the circumstances, our priority is to have him fully-fit for the ICC World Twenty20 and he will continue his rehab,\u2019 said Faruk.
\nThe squad also marked a return for left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak, who had been rested from the Sri Lanka ODIs to heal his hamstring injury. Razzak replaced paceman Shafiul Islam in the squad.
\nSelectors also retained suspended all-rounder Sakib al Hasan, who will join the squad after serving out his three-match ban.
\n\u2018There are two left-arm spinners in the squad other than Sakib al Hasan. This was necessary as we will not have Sakib\u2019s services in the first two games,\u2019 Faruk said, explaining his decision of giving rookie Arafat Sunny another go.
\nFaruk is confident Bangladesh will put their miserable performance against Sri Lanka behind them and get some positive results.
\n\u2018I believe we are not playing that badly. We just need to get a couple of results and I am confident the boys will be able to comeback from the disappointment of the series against Sri Lanka,\u2019 he said in the statement.<\/p>\n

-With New Age<\/strong> input<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bangladesh on Saturday left Tamim Iqbal out of their Asia Cup squad after the opener failed to recover sufficiently from his neck injury. \u00a0Tamim, who played a phenomenal role in the last Asia Cup with four fifties to help Bangladesh finish runners-up, also missed the preceding three one-day internationals against Sri Lanka due to the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n