DHAKA, Oct 15(ABC): Bangladesh have brought in Soumya Sarkar and Shoriful Islam to replace Mohammad Saifuddin and Sabbir Rahman in their T20 World Cup squad.
All four members were part of the team that played the recently concluded tri-series in New Zealand, and although Bangladesh lost all four matches, their technical consultant Sridharan Sriram insisted that there were positives.
Soumya and Shoriful s inclusions in the T20 World Cup squad seemed on the cards given their performance was marginally better than the other two who will now make their way back home from Christchurch.
Soumya s scores of 23 and 4 were enough for a team management, that includes Sriram, team director Khaled Mahmud and captain Shakib Al Hasan, to pick him. Soumya hadn t been picked for Bangladesh in any format since a poor outing in last year s T20 World Cup. He made 164 runs at a strike rate of 109.33 in last season s BPL during this break.
Bangladesh have also sacrificed the only pace-bowling all-rounder they had in the squad, axing Saifuddin who has not been able to live up to his potential since his comeback in the Asia Cup in late August. Shoriful steps into his place, even though he hasn t set the world alight in his last few T20I appearances. He will partner another fast bowler who has been enduring a dip in form, Mustafizur Rahman.
Bangladesh head to Brisbane on Saturday where they will face Afghanistan (October 17) and South Africa (October 19) in two warm-up games. Their T20 World Cup campaign begins with a match against one of the first-round qualifiers in Hobart on October 24.
Bangladesh T20 World Cup squad: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Najmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar, Litton Das, Afif Hossain, Yasir Ali, Mosaddek Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain.
