T20 World Cup 2022: Bangladesh draft in Soumya Sarkar, Shoriful Islam in final 15-member squad

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced their final 15-man squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia on Friday, prior to the deadline set by ICC to finalize squads for the global event. The subcontinent side has made a couple of changes to the pool of players they had announced earlier on September 15 as Soumya Sarkar, and Shoriful Islam make the cut in their final 15-member squad for the forthcoming ICC event.

BCB explained the reasoning behind the changes as Bangladesh have parted ways with Sabbir Rahman and Mohammad Saifuddin for the impending tournament, owing to their poor performances. Both the players were included in the earlier squad and have been replaced by Soumya Sarkar and Shoriful Islam in the finalized squad for the T20 World Cup.

"Left-handed batsman Soumya Sarkar and left-arm paceman Shoriful Islam, originally on the standby list, have been selected in the World Cup squad. They have replaced batsman Sabbir Rahman and all-rounder Saifuddin who had been named earlier in the 15-man team which was announced on September 14." the BCB said in a statement.

Minhajul Abedin was unimpressed by the recent outings of Sabbir and Saifuddin

Chief selector Minhajul Abedin revealed that the team had specific plans in place for Sabbir and Saifuddin, but they failed to live up to the expectations. The duo will now travel back to their home country from New Zealand, where they took part in the recently concluded tri-series with the hosts and Pakistan.

"The responsibility of a player is the most crucial thing. You need to be conscious because overs finish so fast here. Self-assessment is very important here. Saifuddin has been struggling for a lot of days. He sustained an injury during the last World Cup. He returned to domestic cricket but he was not fit... He couldn't go to West Indies due to a back injury... But overall, we are disappointed with his performance," Minhajul Abedin told reporters on Friday.

Bangladesh squad for T20 WC: Shakib Al Hasan (C), Najmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar, Litton Kumer Das, Afif Hossain, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Musaddek Hossain Saikat, Nurul Hasan Sohan (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain