Nafees, Habibul Bashar, Rajin Saleh, Khaled Mashud and Mohammad Sharif were the five players to be sent home on conclusion of the Test series but the team management's eleventh hour decision was to keep left-hander Nafees.

"Nafees looked to be in good touch," said national selector Akram Khan, who is touring with the team, yesterday after their return to the Lankan capital from Kandy.

"We are uncertain about (Mohammed) Rafique's return and thought an extra batsman would help," added the former national skipper.

Rafique will return to Dhaka for personal reasons and is due to come back but the team management hinted that the ace left-arm spinner may not be available for the three ODIs in Colombo.

"If we think about future, keeping Nafees means sensible. Also, the way Javed (Omar) batted in his last innings, we are not impressed," Akram said.

The Tigers, whitewashed 3-0 in the Test series, will play a limited-overs warm-up match here on Wednesday in build-up to the one-day series.

Nafees made 64 in his last innings and captain Mohammad Ashraful believes that the left-handed batsman has showed signs of returning to form.

"Javed has given us partnerships consistently. But any captain would choose Nafees for a one-day match if he were in form.

"He is getting better and it's just a matter of time he gets a big score," said Ashraful with confidence.

Although the members of the team management, who opined that Nafees needed a break to realise how does it feel to be out of the team, could not give any satisfactory explanation over the sudden change of heart.

"I had packed my bags for the trip home. My omission (from the one-day squad) was not unexpected. But this latest development is really surprising. Now my focus would be on getting among runs," said a surprised Nafees.

Bashar, Saleh, Mashud and Sharif will fly out of Colombo this morning while their replacements Aftab Ahmed, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad and Forhad Reza joined the rest of the team yesterday.

Meanwhile, chief selector Faruqe Ahmed told The Daily Star in Dhaka that he received the request of the team management to keep an additional player in Nafees.

"I had a talk with the captain (Ashraful) and he told me that the tour management wants to keep Nafees. I checked with the board whether there is any logistic problem in keeping an extra player in Sri Lanka. The board gave me the green signal and I agreed to the management's proposal of having a 15-member squad," Faruque told.

The first one-day will be held at P Sara on July 20 followed by the next two matches at the Premadasa Stadium on July 23 and 25.