‘A question of whether we’d take an extra seamer’

Since the deadline to announce the squad for the upcoming ICC World T20 set by the International Cricket Council (ICC) is on September 10, the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the selectors have almost chalked out the squad and are expected to announce the 15-member Bangladesh team within the next couple of days.

"We will sit for a final selection meeting tomorrow (today) and we are expected to announce the squad by September 6 or 7. We can actually tell you the exact date of announcing the squad tomorrow (today)," former Bangladesh captain and member of the selection committee Habibul Bashar told the media during a programme in the capital yesterday.

The selectors are likely to announce the squad from the current 19-member squad for the New Zealand series where Tamim Iqbal would have been considered as the only player from outside the squad but the experienced left-hander had opted to exclude himself out of the selection.

With Tamim unavailable, it is expected that all three existing openers -- Naim Sheikh, Liton Das, and Soumya Sarkar -- will make it to the team for the mega event. 

"Definitely we are a bit disappointed as it would've been great for us if we had Tamim considering his wealth of experience that we could have utilised well in this world cup.  He has already cleared his position and we all should respect his decision. At the moment we're only thinking about the combination of the team from the existing players and we want to have faith in these players and hope they do well," Bashar added.

Keeping the conditions of Oman and the UAE in mind, Bashar informed that they will take the final decision on whether to include an extra seamer in the squad by today. It is going to be a tough competition among the five pacers in the squad, the likes of -- Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Mohammad Saifuddin and Shoriful Islam.

"Look, we know what conditions are waiting in Oman and the UAE as we have played there in the past. If you look at the current squad we have got the balance in both departments. We have three spinners and four fast bowlers and there might be a question of whether we'd take an extra seamer in the world cup where the pacers can get some assistance in Oman and UAE.

"So these are the areas we will discuss and apart from that there is less chance to make any changes from the existing batting department. We will take the final decision regarding all the aspects tomorrow (today)," the former captain said.

Bangladesh will begin their world cup mission from the qualifying round 1 in Oman on September 17 against Scotland. The Tigers will have to qualify for the Super 12 stage from group B with hosts Oman and Papua New Guinea being the two other teams in their group.

According to Bashar, there is still enough time for the batters to get into the groove since there were talks over the lack of preparation from the batsmen ahead of the flagship event. He also added that the current winning momentum will help Bangladesh to gain confidence and other teams in the World Cup will be wary about the success of the Tigers in leading up to it.