Nidahas Trophy 2018: Bangladesh Squad

Bangladesh cricket team will tour Sri Lanka next month to play a tri-nation T20I series, which includes India and host Sri Lanka as other opponents in this tournament. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a 16-man squad keeping this upcoming cricket tournament titled Nidahas Trophy in mind.

Bangladesh Test and T20 captain, Shakib Al Hasan, has been included in the squad though he has not been completely recovered from a finger injury that forced him to miss out on the recently concluded home series against Sri Lanka. The BCB president Nazmul Hassan said the all-rounder might be able to play one or two matches because he is not fit enough. For this reason, Shakib could bowl but not bat. So, it will not be a good decision to take any risk with Shakib. That is why, there is very less possibility to see him playing in this tournament.

It looks like the absence created by Shakib Al Hasan will be replaced by off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz. He was one of the players who were not selected in the T20I squad that was beaten by the Lankans in February. 

The inclusion of opener Imrul Kayes and hard hitting batsman Sabbir Rahman has raised a lot of questions. The 31-year-old left-arm opener Kayes playing 14 T20Is has so far scored 119 runs at an average of 9.15 with career high score of 36. Though Sabbir’s record in the shortest format of cricket game is quite good, he is recently out of form, scoring 10, 2, 0, 1 and 1 in his last five international matches. Chief selector, Minhajul Abedin, has picked them up in the squad considering the importance of having experienced batsmen against two experienced sides in conditions where fast bowlers will be a dominating factor.

Taking the conditions of the pitch into consideration, selectors have also called in Taskin Ahmed. This tall speed star is considered the fastest among all fast bowlers in Bangladesh. This tall fast bowler has the ability to bowl yorkers and bouncers.

Mashrafe Mortaza was requested by the BCB to reconsider his T20 retirement and feature in the tournament. However, the veteran player has turned down the offer.

Players who have been left out of the squad are- Zakir Hasan, Afif Hossain, Mohammad Mithun, Mahedi Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin. Three- Zakir, Afif, Mahedi- out of these five players made international debut against Sri Lanka. According to Minhajul, the reason behind playing many uncapped players was preparing a strong group for the next T20 world cup. They were selected based on their performances in the BPL.

The West Indies fast bowling legend, Courtney Walsh, who is now bowling coach of the national cricket team since September 2016, has been appointed as interim head coach for next month’s tri-nation T20 series in Sri Lanka starting from March 6. Since the departure of Chandika Hathurusingha, Bangladesh cricket team is without a head coach. To fill up this gap, former skipper, Khaled Mahmud, was made team director, but he has been criticized due to the Tiger’s poor performance in home series.

Squad for the tri-nation series: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Mahmudullah Riyad (vice captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Sabbir Rahman, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Abu Hider, Abu Jayed, Ariful Haque, Nazmul Islam, Nurul Hasan, Mehedi Hasan.