Tri-Nation Series: BCB announces squad for 3rd, 4th T20I with three new faces

Bangladesh Cricket Board announced 15-member squad for the 3rdand 4th matches of the ongoing Tri-Nation T20I Series involving Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe including three new faces, UNB reports.

BCB selection team overlooked top order batsman Soumya Sarkar, who is passing bad days. He scored 0 and 4 runs in the first two matches of the event that might have prompted BCB not to consider him for the next two games.

Along with Soumya, Abu Hider Rony, Mehedi Hasan and Yasin Arafat Mishu were dropped from the squad of the previous game. Soumya ruled out due to poor performance while the other three played no matches.

To replace them, BCB included experienced pace-duo Shafiul Islam and Rubel Hossan, and three new faces- Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mohammad Naim and Aminul Islam Biplop.

Shanto played in Tests and ODIs before while Naim and Aminul got a national call up for the first time in the career.

MinhajulAbedinNannu-led BCB selection committee,however did not come up with any interpretation of the reason behind making these changes into the T20I squad.

Shafiul played his last T20Is back in 2017 at Bloemfontein against South Africa. Since then, he was out of national set-up until the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka after the World Cup, where he bagged six wickets in three matches and prove that he still has plenty of cricket in him to offer. Rubel, on the other hand, played his last T20Is in 2018 at Lauderhill against West Indies.

Naim and Aminul Islam are known as two of the best players who have been doing well consistently in the age-level cricket and in the High-performance unit.

Naim played four First-class, 32 List-A and four Twenty20 games and scored 330, 1737 and 101 respectively. He has four centuries in List-A cricket.

Aminul Islam played 19 List-A and two Twenty20 games. Along being a lower-order batsman, he is known for his leg-spinning ability.

Simon Helmot, the coach of the High-performance unit of Bangladesh, who has been working with the players like Naim, Aminul, Afif Hossain, Yasin Arafat for a long time now, is happy to see Naim and Aminul made it to the national team squad.

“I am really pleased to see Naim and Biplob got a call to the national team. Before them, Afif has a good first game in the ongoing series. Apart from them, Shanto, Mishu also made it to the national team. I think they have worked really hard to be there. We need this kind of cricketers to do well to help us become a strong cricketing nation,” Helmot told UNB on Monday.

“Biplob has good control over his bowling. We need some bowlers like him who can help Shakib (Al Hasan) and Taijul (Islam) in the national side and develop their own game. Not just leg-spinners, we also need good quality off-spinner as well. I hope Biplob will take advantage of his selection in the national side,” he further said.

“The new boys should come up and display their performance as the T20 World Cup is next year. They should remain positive on their game and go accordingly,” he added.

Bangladesh will face off Zimbabwe in their next game of the ongoing Tri-series at Chattogram on September 18 and after that, they will lock horns with Afghanistan on September 21 at the same venue.

Bangladesh squad for 3rd and 4th matches of the Tri-series: Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Sabbir Rahaman, Musaddek Hossain Saikat, Liton Das, Afif Hossain, Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mohammad Nayeem Shaikh, Aminul Biplob and Nazmul Hossain Shanto.