BCB names strong squad for SA Games
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a 15-member squad for the men’s T20 event of the upcoming 13th South Asian Games to be held in Nepal from December 1.
The official announcement of the squad was made as late as 8:30 pm last night, although the team are supposed to leave for Nepal tomorrow. BCB selector Habibul Bashar, who will also accompany the team on the tour as their manager, said that the selectors had already submitted their choice of players to the board.
Bashar also mentioned that the squad remains quite similar to the one that played in the recently concluded ACC Emerging Asia Cup, where Bangladesh lost to Pakistan in the final.
“The squad will be announced today [Friday]. Actually, we had submitted the team beforehand but maybe for some reason the official announcement took some time. It is almost the same team that played in the Emerging Cup as the concept of the SA Games and that of Emerging Cup are very similar, so we did not change the squad too much. Also, these players have been playing together for a long time now for the Emerging team and we did not want to change that,” Bashar told The Daily Star yesterday.
Nazmul Hossain Shanto, who captained Bangladesh in the Emerging Cup, will also be leading the squad in the SA Games. However, leg-spinner Aminul Islam, who injured his right hand while fielding during Bangladesh’s opening Emerging Cup game against Hong Kong, has been left out of the squad.
Meanwhile, opener Saif Hassan, who toured with the Tigers in their recent India tour, has been included in the squad and Soumya Sarkar has been retained after featuring in the Emerging Cup. Bangladesh will start by playing against Maldives in Kathmandu on December 4.
Meanwhile, the 15-member Women’s Squad for the SA Games travelled to Nepal yesterday. The Salma Khatun-led team will be playing their opening game against their Sri Lankan counterparts in Pokhara on December 3.
Squad: Nazmul Hossain Shanto (captain), Saif Hassan, Mohammad Naim, Afif Hossain, Zakir Hasan, Yasir Ali, Syed Minhajul Abedin Afridi, Sumon Khan, Mahidul Islam, Tanvir Islam, Manik Khan, Mehede Hasan Rana, Soumya Sarkar, Mahadi Hasan, Hasan Mahmud.
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