Selectors bring back trio

Nafis Iqbal

As expected new faces have crowded when the national selectors announced a 24-member preliminary squad on Sunday for the upcoming home series against New Zealand and the tour of South Africa.
The departure of some national players who have joined rebel Indian Cricket League (NCL) to receive a ten-year ban by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) forced the selectors to bring back opener Nafis Iqbal, middle-order batsmen Tushar Imran and Rajin Saleh and left-arm spinner Enamul Haque.
On the other hand, uncapped players like opener Imrul Kayes, young middle order batsmen Shamsur Rahman and Nayeem Islam, left-arm spinner Suharwardi Shuvo, paceman Mahbubul Alam and wicketkeeper Sahagir Hossain were drafted into the senior side to fill up the vacuum. Except Sahagir, all the uncapped players are now touring with the GP-BCB National Cricket Academy team in Sri Lanka.
The training camp under the guidance of Jamie Siddons, who returned from Australia early morning of Sunday, will start today at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur for next month's three-match one-day and two-match Test series against New Zealand.
The Tigers will play one Twenty20 International, three ODIs and two Tests in South Africa in November-December.
Nafis Iqbal, the nephew of former national skipper Akram Khan and the elder brother of national opener Tamim Iqbal, whose inclusion was the most significant as the right-hander, who played 11 Tests and 16 ODIs, returned to the national fold after more than two years of wilderness.
"There is no question about his potential and sometimes he wasn't consider because of injury. Nafis's last season domestic performance was also not bad. He informed me that he is not fit and practicing but we can only confirm about his fitness while our national physio (Darryl Lifson) gave the green signal," said chief selector Rafiqul Alam.
"Players like Rajin (Saleh) and Tushar (Imran) were always in our consideration but definitely the sudden vacuum made the way for them to be recalled in the national side. And you must understand that we always have limited options," he said.
The former national player was very much optimistic with the fresh inclusions.
"We were lucky enough that these particular players had been playing continuously with the A team or the Academy. And I believe there are some players who have the potential to serve the national team for long," Rafiqul hoped.
"Lets see how these young guys take the opportunity. You never know they might be better than the lost ones," he said.
Rafiqul informed that left-arm seamer Syed Rasel is fully fit but middle-order batsman Rokibul Hasan, who suffered finger-injury during the one-day series in Australia, will be fit within the first week of next month.
"Rasel is fully fit but Rokibul will be okay before the series. On the other hand Mashrafe (Bin Mortaza) is sick," he informed.
PRELIMINARY SQUAD
Tamim Iqbal, Zunaed Siddiqui, Mohammad Ashraful, Rokibul Hassan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehrab Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (wicketkeeper), Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel, Nazmul Hossain, Mahmudullah Riyad, Dollar Mahmud, Nafis Iqbal, Rajin Saleh, Tushar Imran, Enamul Haque, Imrul Kayes, Shamsur Rahman, Nayeem Islam, Sohrawordi Shuvo, Mahbubul Alam and Sahagir Hossain (wicketkeeper).