Shafiul, Anamul in long list

Opener Anamul Haque and pacer Shafiul Islam are the only players, who did not feature in the Pakistan series, to be included in the preliminary squad for the India series due to begin on June 7. The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced a 23-member squad yesterday which will have to report to the national team's strength and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayen at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on May 20.

Both Anamul and Shafiul were injured and were therefore not picked for the Pakistan series. “We are still not sure about their fitness levels. They will have to prove themselves in the fitness camp,” said chief selector Faruque Ahmed.

“We have decided not to make any drastic changes from the Pakistan series since we did well there,” he added.

The squad also includes young left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman who played in the lone T20I against Pakistan. 

Preliminary Squad 

Tamim Iqbal, Taijul Islam, Imrul Kayes, Arafat Sunny, Mominul Haque, Jubair Hossain, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mushfiqur Rahim, Rubel Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Mustafizur Rahman, Shuvagata Hom, Abul Hasan, Litton Kumar Das, Mohammed Shahid, Nasir Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Anamul Haque, Rony Talukdar and Sabbir Rahman.