Three newcomers in squad for first ODI
Three new names made it into the 15-man squad for Bangladesh’s first warm-up match on December 22 and the first ODI on the Tigers’ tour of New Zealand on December 26, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced this evening.
Off-spinning all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz – the man-of-the-series in Bangladesh’s historic drawn Test series against England at home – heads the list of three with pacer Shubashis Roy and leg-spinning all-rounder Tanveer Haider also making the cut.
The squad also includes Mustafizur Rahman, the sensational young left-arm pacer who has had an immensely successful year in international cricket before being laid low by a shoulder injury, for which he has had surgery on August. He is believed now to be back to near full fitness. The pacer last played an international match on March 26 this year in the ICC World Twenty20.
Also back in the squad is fast bowler Rubel Hossain. The players who have missed out from Bangladesh's last ODI squad, which played against England in October, are Taijul Islam, Al-Amin Hossain, Shafiul Islam and Nasir Hossain. The seven players who formed part of the preliminary squad on tour but did not make the 15-man cut -- Nurul Hasan, Mominul Haque, Shuvagata Hom, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Taijul, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Ebadat Hossain and Mehedi Maruf -- will travel with the team and may get a look-in in squads for the remainder of the matches, which includes two more ODIs, three T20Is and two Tests.
“We have kept the backbone of a settled squad that has been very successful over the last two years,” BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin was quoted as saying in the BCB press release. “But at the same time it is also important to get players in who we believe have plenty of potential to perform at the highest level. Tanveer has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket and gives a different dimension to our attack as he is a genuine leg-spinner. He has also impressed the coaching team during the camp in Australia.
“Shubashis hits the deck and can extract bounce and movement off the wicket. He can be quite a handful in the conditions in New Zealand,” he added.
“Miraz has not played ODIs yet but has all the makings of a very useful limited-overs all-rounder. We have reasons to believe that he has the ability to serve Bangladesh in all formats and is one for the future.”
Bangladesh will play their first warm-up on Thursday against a New Zealand XI at Cobham Oval (New) in Whangarei, before taking on New Zealand in the first of three ODIs on December 26 at Christchurch.
SQUAD
Masrafe Bin Mortaza (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarker, Sabbir Rahman, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Shakib Al Hasan (vice captain), Mosaddek Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Shubashis Roy, Tanveer Haider
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