Bangladesh name three uncapped players for England, Afghanistan ODI series

Dhaka, Sep 7 (IANS) The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has called up three uncapped players for their forthcoming home series against Afghanistan and England.

The board, in a media statement on Tuesday, announced a 20-man One-Day International (ODI) pool for the tours, reports bdnews24.com.

Bangladesh under-19 captain in the last Youth World Cup, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, pacer Subashis Roy and allrounder Alauddin Babu have got their first calls to the national team.

Legspinner Jubair Hossain, wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Kumar Das, pacer Kamrul Islam Rabbi and spinner Arafat Sunny have been dropped from the ODI team. They played their last match in November 2015.

Suspended southpaw Sunny has flown to Australia for his bowling action assessment and injury had earlier ruled seamer Mustafizur Rahman out of the two series.

Another suspended bowler, Taskin Ahmed was, however, given the nod. He is in Brisbane for the ICC test along with Sunny.

"The team for Afghanistan series will definitely be made from this list. And it's very unlikely that someone outside this list will be selected for England series, unless something important comes up," Habibul Bashar, a member of the selection panel, said on Tuesday.

Bashar also explained the reason behind calling up the three rookies who were in the High Performance squad but had been overlooked for the preliminary camp.

"For the national team, we had our eyes on a number of players from both the preliminary camp and HP. We stayed open about picking player from anywhere, if necessary."

"But do keep in mind, it's an initial squad. There is still the matter of getting in the final team," Bashar added.

Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said the team for Afghanistan series will be announced on September 18.

Bangladesh will play three ODIs against Afghanistan -- scheduled for September 25, 29 and October 1 -- in Dhaka.

The hosts will then take on England over five weeks that will feature three one-dayers and two Tests.

The squad:

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Anamul Haque, Mosaddek Hossain, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Rubel Hossain, Shubashish Roy, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Mosharraf Hossain Rubel, Alauddin Babu, Al-Amin Hossain.

--IANS

sam/dg