Bangladesh revamp their squad for T20I tri-series; Soumya Sarkar and three others axed

Bangladesh team is currently engaged in a three-nation T20I series involving Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. Afghanistan is dominating the series as they have won both their matches, while Zimbabwe is yet to open its account, but the biggest shock came as Bangladesh lost one of their matches recently in convincing fashion.

Mohammad Nabi starred with the bat scoring 84* and Mujeeb picked 4/15 helping the Afghans win their 12th straight T20I match, a world record, as the hosts lost by 25 runs, despite skipper Shakib Al Hasan’s best efforts. The match brought an end to the first round of matches that were played in Dhaka and now as the action shifts to Chattogram, Bangladesh have decided to make a host of changes to their squad in order to boost their confidence and for positive results for the next leg.

Rubel Hossain roped in 

A big casualty of the rejig was Soumya Sarkar, who is a regular in the T20I team, but returned with scores of 4 and 0 in the two matches. He along with Mahedi Hasan, Abu Hider Rony, and Yeasin Arafat was dropped from the squad for the remaining matches. Instead of them, the team management of the Tigers has decided to bank on the experience and talent.

Rubel Hossain, their most experienced pacer comes back into the team, along with Shafiul Islam for company. Also included in the team are southpaw opener Najmul Hossain Shanto, leg-spinning all-rounder Aminul Islam and exciting opener Mohammad Naim. Najmul, 21, has played two Test matches and three ODIs since making his international debut in January 2017 and scored heavily in Bangladesh emerging team’s tour to Sri Lanka recently.

Aminul and Naim are uncapped at the international level, but both of them have been the talk of the town in domestic cricket. 20-year-old Naim scored 807 runs in 16 games in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League for Legends of Rupganj team. Meanwhile, Rubel is poised for a T20 return having played his last T20I match in August, while Shafiul played his previous T20I in October 2017.

Bangladesh Squad:

Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Liton Das, Afif Hossain, Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mohammad Naim Shaikh, Aminul Islam, Najmul Hossain Shanto

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