New faces called up to make new start: Minhajul Abedin

Minhajul Abedin Nannu, the chief selector of the national team selection panel of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), believes that new players who are called up in the Tigers T20 could usher a turnaround from the disastrous T20 World Cup.

Bangladesh called up six players including four new faces for the three-match T20 International series against Pakistan, scheduled to begin on November 19.

The sweeping changes were made in response to the disappointing performances in the just concluded World Cup where Bangladesh failed to register any victory in the Super 12s. They also experienced a shock defeat to Scotland before making the Super 12s with a win against Oman and Papua New Guinea.

“We had to bring some changes to make a turnaround in the upcoming series as we had a disastrous World Cup campaign,” Abdein said on Tuesday, BSS reports.

“We had called up some new faces for making a new start. l hope those who got the call up are well prepared for the international arena. They trained while playing for HP. We are hopeful that they will do well,” he added.

Opening batsman Najmul Hossain Shanto and leg-spinner Aminul Islam returned to the national fold while the four new faces were batsmen Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, wicket-keeper batsman Akbar Ali and pace Shohidul Islam.

Opener Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and fast bowler Rubel Hossain, who didn’t play any game in the World Cup were dropped while allrounders Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin were unavailable due to injuries.

The other missing player from the Bangladesh’s World Cup squad was Mushfiqur Rahim who was rested according to chief selector MInhajul Abedin.

“Mushfiqur did not ask for rest and there was no such discussion with him. We have decided to rest him after consulting with the team management. He is our key player. Since Tamim Iqbal is not available in the Test series, we need to keep him refreshed. Moreover we have back-to-back Test series against Pakistan and New Zealand.”