BCB name new Test and T20 captains
The Bangladesh Cricket Board yesterday announced a 16-member Test squad and a revised T20 squad for the upcoming India tour during a press conference at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. Bangladesh will play a three-match T20 series followed by a two-match Test series against India, starting from November 3.
“The Test captain will be Mominul Haque and Mahmudullah Riyad will be T20 captain for the tour.” announced BCB cricket operations chairman Akram Khan before chief selector Minhajul Abedin read out the replacements in the T20 and Test squads to the media.
On October 17, the BCB had announced a 15-member squad for the three T20Is. However, the BCB were forced to make three changes as Mohammad Saifuddin’s recurring back injury had ruled the all-rounder out of the tour and opener Tamim Iqbal had pulled himself out from the entire series on personal grounds. Last but not least, the International Cricket Council (ICC) yesterday handed out a two-year ban for Shakib, who will be suspended for the first year while he will be on probation for the second.
“We had earlier announced the T20 squad. Now we will be announcing three replacements. Taijul Islam will be replacing Shakib, Abu Hider will be replacing Saifuddin and Mohammad Mithun will go instead of Tamim. The rest are the same.” said Minhajul.
The BCB’s announcement of Mominul as Test captain raised a few eyebrows during the press briefing, however, Akram justified the reasons behind the decision.
“Mominul has a very good reputation in Tests. And we also need to see who will play more in the future and who can be given the leadership role. He performed really well in our recent India and Sri Lanka tours. Considering all these things we named him captain of the Test squad.” said Akram.
Saif Hassan, who captained Bangladesh A during their tour of India last month, has been in terrific form as of late scoring a century against India A before going on to hit a hundred against Sri Lanka in Colombo earlier this month. He also smashed a double ton for Dhaka Division in the 21st edition of the ongoing National Cricket League (NCL) and so, the 20-year old was rewarded with his first ever call to the national squad.
Meanwhile, Mustafizur Rahman got a call back to the team after being dropped from the one-off Test against Afghanistan in early September. Opener Imrul Kayes also made it into the team following a double-ton in the NCL earlier this month while Soumya Sarkar was dropped.