Mashud, Rafique in the cold
As expected, veteran wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud along with ace left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique were ignored for the New Zealand tour when the national selectors announced the additional three names for the two-match Test series yesterday.
The Rafiqul Alam-led selection panel has selected three players who are former national skipper Habibul Bashar, left-handed opener Shahriar Nafees and left-arm spinner Enamul Haque to join the national team for the Test series, which starts from January 4.
The three selected players will leave for New Zealand on December 28 while four cricketers, whose names will be announced later, from the one-day squad will return home after the completion of the ongoing ODI series.
The axe fell on Mashud, who has played 44 Tests out of 49, as the selectors kept faith with youngster Mushfiqur Rahim to continue the tour.
The selectors also picked Enamul ahead of the experienced Rafique mainly for technical reason.
"We had conditions in mind rather than going for only experience while taking the decision of leaving out two of our most important performers," said Rafiqul.
"Mushfiq is already accustomed to the condition and his last Test performance in Sri Lanka was also not bad. That's why we didn't find any reason to send Mashud despite his good form in the national league and in addition we have yet to get a full fitness report on him," he explained of Mashud's omission.
"In Rafique's case what we felt was that a spinner like Enamul who can bowl a little slower would be more effective than him. Enamul has already proved his worth as a longer-version bowler and his performance in the national league was also noteworthy,"
"On the other hand we still believe that Rafique has been completely out of sorts since the last home series against India and his performance in the domestic competition and attitude towards the competition also forced us to take the decision," he added.
The former national player also explained the reason behind the selection of Bashar and Nafees, who got the nod because of his late comeback in the national cricket league.
"The time has yet to come to think about the Test fate of Bashar because we don't want to forget his contribution as a Test batsman. On the other hand we always believe that Nafees is a very important player for us. We dropped Nafees from the one-day squad because of his woeful performances but he has returned among runs lately to get back his place," said Rafiqul.
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