BD keep faith in squad of 15

DHAKA: There will be no changes to the 15-man provisional World Cup squad Bangladesh had announced over a month ago, with Minhajul Abedin, the chief selector, saying that the performances in the Ireland tri-series, which Bangladesh won, had convinced the selectors that the squad was the right one.

“There is much confidence on and within the 15-member squad currently in England,” Abedin, who was also the team manager during the tri-series, told Cricinfo.

“Everyone in the squad has shown that they are capable of performing at the highest stage, which is why we selected them in the first place.”

The question marks were mainly over Abu Jayed and Mosaddek Hossain, but both passed with flying colours. Mosaddek’s quickfire half-century against West Indies in the final helped Bangladesh clinch their first multi-team ODI trophy, while Jayed took 5 for 58 against Ireland in an earlier game.

Liton Das and Rubel Hossain, also not considered automatic starters at the World Cup, also did enough in their limited opportunities during the tri-series to stay in the squad. Liton hit a 67-ball 76 against Ireland in his only outing, while Rubel picked up 1 for 41 in the same game.

Four reserve players — Taskin Ahmed, Farhad Reza, Nayeem Hasan and Yasir Ali — had travelled to Ireland for the tri-series, but will now continue training in Dhaka along with the two other standby players — Imrul Kayes and Taijul Islam — in preparation for the July series against Afghanistan A, who will play two four-day and five one-day games.

Most of Bangladesh’s World Cup squad is now training in Leicester before the squad — including captain Mashrafe Mortaza and Tamim Iqbal, who were given a break — head to Cardiff for their two warm-up games against Pakistan and India on May 26 and 28 respectively.

Squad: Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Liton Das, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Saifuddin, Abu Jayed, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain.