Chief selector Faruque Ahmed announced a 13-member national squad besides two separate teams for warm-up and Twenty20 matches yesterday at a press conference leaving out Ashraful and Rajin Saleh from the squad that toured India for the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy.

The BCB selection panel's new slogan 'talent is not good enough, we need performers in the team' was reflected in their decision in replacing Ashraful with frequently in and out middle-order batsman Tushar Imran.

In the face of a volley of questions about Ashraful's exclusion, selectors said that they wanted to give the exciting right-hander a clear message that his place in the squad is not cemented. However they have only left him so that he works on getting back his form.

"We all know he is a rare breed of talent and has proved his match-winning ability in the past. He has been going through a long bad-patch that's why we thought that it would be better for him to play in less pressure games for getting good knocks," explained Faruque.

Coach Dav Whatmore was absent due to illness but it was learned that the selectors obliged to his wish on the matter.

"We had a very simple policy behind selection this time and that was to make a team on basis of performance. I once again want to mention that Ashraful is a match winner but we can't overlook the consistency issue. We have also won matches in recent times without his contribution. He smashed a hundred in the domestic match recently but we want to see his bat speaking consistently," he continued.

Being dropped is nothing new for the 22-year old Dhaka batsman as he had been ignored from playing eleven in the past often for his poor showing. The last time it happened was during the last match of the ICC Champions Trophy against Zimbabwe. He was twice excluded from the squad previously, in Bangladesh's lone South Africa tour and England's first visit to Bangladesh in October 2003.

This omission raised questions about his participating in next year's World Cup because many thought it was funny to sideline a batsman in a comparatively easy home series and then again picked up for the top tournament of the world.

"There is hardly any chance to see Ashraful not going to the World Cup. We hope he will get back his form in the next two games of the National Cricket League and get in contention for the remaining two games as well as the Scotland series," hoped the former national skipper.

When he was asked what would happen if Ashraful failed to shine in the next two domestic matches, Faruque responded with a mysterious smile, perhaps meaning that they would get enough excuses to bring back the batsman.

Many believed that it were the selectors who have made Ashraful confused by rotating his batting position often and before the Champions Trophy, the selectors had publicly announced that they would give him 'enough time' to settle as an opener. But their patience ran out after just two games.

When asked whether the team management including coach Whatmore should also be held responsible for his downfall due to experiments, Faruque could not come up with satisfactory explanation.

"What I can say is that we have been trying our best," he said.

Meanwhile, the selectors announced a 13-member team led by Shahriar Nafees for the Tigers' first Twenty20 international to be held on November 28 at Khulna while Habibul Bashar has been named captain of the 12-member team for the warm-up match on November 26 at BKSP.

Zimbabwe will arrive in Dhaka on November 23.

Squads
(For three one-dayers)
Habibul Bashar (captain), Shahriar Nafees (vice-captain), Khaled Mashud, Aftab Ahmed, Tushar Imran, Mohammad Rafique, Sakib Al Hasan, Forhad Reza, Mehrab Hossain, Mashrafee Bin Mortuza, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel and Shahadat Hossain.
(For Twnety20 match)
Shahriar Nafees (captain), Aftab Ahmed, Sakib Al Hasan, Nazmus Sadat, Mohammed Rafique, Forhad Reza, Nadif Chowdhury, Mashrafee Bin Mortuza, Shahadat Hossain, Abdur Razzak, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tapash Baisya and Mehrab Hossain.
(For Warm-up game)
Habibul Bashar (captain), Mehrab Hossain, Nadif Chowdhury, Nazmus Sadat, Mahmudullah Riyad, Forhad Reza, Nazmul Hossain, Tapash Baisya, Mushfiqur Rahim, Marshal Ayub, Musharraf Hossain and Ziaur Rahman.

Fixtures
Nov 23: Arrival
Nov 26: Warm-up match at BKSP.
Nov 28: Twenty20 int'l at Khulna.
Nov 30: 1st ODI at Khulna.
Dec 3: 2nd ODI at Bogra (D/N).
Dec 5: 3rd ODI at Bogra (D/N).
Dec 8: 4th ODI at Dhaka.
Dec 9: 5th ODI at Dhaka.