Published on: Aug 13, 2023
Bangladesh have included uncapped opener Tanzid Tamim in their 17-member Asia Cup 2023 squad. Upcoming batter Shamim Patowary, who has played T20Is, has earned his maiden call to the ODI squad. Mahedi Hasan, who last played an ODI against New Zealand in March 2021, also makes a comeback to the 50-over squad.
Speaking of Tanzid, he has been rewarded for an impressive Emerging Asia Cup campaign in which he scored three fifties. He gets a chance with veteran opener Tamim Iqbal being rested so that he can recover from his back injury in time for the World Cup in India.
"The selection panel is very confident in Tanzid Tamim because we are nursing him in the HP Unit for a long time and he did well in the Emerging Cup and we are expecting him to deliver for the country," BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin told reporters during an interaction on Saturday, August 12
"Shamim was in the High Performance Unit since coming from the Under-19. After the 2021 T20 World Cup his performance declined but he has overcome it with each series and did well in the last T20 series and we are confident that he has the capabilities to do well and so have picked him,” Abedin added.
Among other notable selections, Mohammad Naim has been retained as opener, while Nasum Ahmed also makes a comeback. Nasum was picked over Taijul Islam as the second left-arm spinner. Explaining the choice, Abedin commented, "Taijul is an attacking spinner while Nasum is a defensive spinner. We went for Nasum as the Asia Cup will be played in Sri Lanka and Pakistan where the wicket is expected to be flat so we feel a defensive bowler is very important and that is the reason we included Nasum.”
Meanwhile, veteran cricketer Mahmudullah continues to remain out of favor. He was in the 32-member preliminary, but does not feature in the final squad. Speaking about Mahmudullah’s non-selection, the selector commented, "We had long discussions about Mahmudullah initially but after lot of discussion team management gave us a plan like how they want to play in future against which team and we omitted Mahmudullah taking all those things into consideration.”
Bangladesh Asia Cup 2023 squad: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Litton Das, Tanzid Tamim, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Sheikh Mahedi, Nasum Ahmed, Shamim Hossain, Afif Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Ebadot Hossain, Mohammad Naim
--By A Cricket Correspondent
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