Bangladesh announce squad for the T20I series against Zimbabwe

Bangladesh, today announced their 14-man squad for the first couple of T20Is of the four-match series against Zimbabwe. There were significant changes in the squad. The uncapped trio of Shuvagata Hom, Abu Hider and Nurul Hasan are the fresh face in the squad whereas Liton Das, Nasir Hossain, Jubair Hossain, Anamul Haque and Kamrul Islam Rabbi, who were part of the previous T20I squad, have been left out. Shakib Al Hasan and Soumya Sarkar also return to the fold after missing the T20I series against Zimbabwe in November.

Left-arm paceman Hider, who played for the Comilla Victorians in the Bangladesh Premier League, performed excellently with 21 wickets for his team who were the eventual champions. Shuvagata Hom was also a part of the same team was decent in the tournament. Wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan has been in the selectors’ radar due to his performances in domestic cricket and for Bangladesh A. Shakib Al Hasan, who is currently in the USA will return to Bangladesh on January 9 to join the training camp.

Among the players dropped, the leg-spinner Jubair was not picked by any of the BPL teams and was also not in the 27-man preliminary training squad that the national selectors had called up for the upcoming T20I tournaments.

Liton Das, Nasir Hossain and Anamul Haque went through form slumps against Zimbabwe and also during the BPL. However, Kamrul Islam Rabbi must have felt unlucky as he would have expected to be named in the squad. He did not get to play any matches against Zimbabwe in November last year despite being in the ODI and T20I squads.

Zimbabwe will take on Bangladesh in a four-match T20I series to be held in Khulna from January 15, the BCB announced on Tuesday. This will be Bangladesh’s longest T20I series, and used as preparation for the upcoming Asia Cup T20s and World T20 2016.

Bangladesh squad for the first two T20Is:

Mashrafe Mortaza (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Arafat Sunny, Nurul Hasan, Shuvagata Hom, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Hider, Al-Amin Hossain