Rony gets his break

 Bangladesh have made two changes from their World Cup squad for the first two ODIs of the Pakistan series. Uncapped opener Rony Talukdar and pacer Abul Hasan are the new entrants. Talukdar has replaced Imrul Kayes while Abul has been included in place of Shafiul Islam.

The other players from the 15-member World Cup squad who won't be featuring in the first two ODIs are Al-Amin Hossain, Anamul Haque and Taijul Islam.

Anamul is yet to recover from the shoulder injury he suffered in Australia, while Shafiul recently underwent an operation in his hand. The rest of the three players have been dropped due to lack of form.

With Anamul injured and Imrul's unimpressive display in the World Cup, there was always going to be a spot available in the opening position for a new face. The battle was between Liton Kumar Das and Rony. Both players had done well in the recently concluded National Cricket League. While Liton had hammered more than 1000 runs, Rony scored three consecutive centuries, surpassing 200 on two occasions.

The Faruque Ahmed-led selection panel revealed that Rony edged Liton due to experience. The 24-year-old form Narayanganj has been playing domestic cricket since 2008 and was marked as a special talent early on.

“We spent a lot of time thinking about both of them. Rony is probably more experienced than Liton. Also Liton is a wicket keeper-batsman and is more used to keeping. We had to focus on the field as well. Liton is promising and extraordinary. Maybe we can see him in one of the other formats,” explained Faruque.

“Rony is in good touch and I feel this is the time when he needs to get that opportunity. This is a big step up for him. There are many players who do well in domestic cricket but fail internationally. I have spoken to him and I am sure he can handle the pressure in the next level,” he added.

He further said that the selection committee had decided to select Abul over Al-Amin for the former's batting ability.

“Shafiul was initially in our minds before his operation. But we chose [Abul Hasan] Raju  because he is a good all-rounder. I won't say that he is very consistent with his bowling, but I think through this series we can judge his ability in international cricket,” said Faruque.  

The selection committee also announced the 14-man squad for the practice match against Pakistan.

Squad
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (captain) Tamim Iqbal, Rony Talakdar, Soumya Sarker, Mominul Hoque, Shakib Al Hasan (vice-captain), Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Nasir Hossain, Shabbir Rahaman, Taskin Ahmed, Abul Hasan Raju, Rubel Hossain and Arafat Sunny.