CHRISTCHURCH: Following their victory in the recently ended Tri-series here, middle-order batsman Soumya Sarkar and left-arm fast bowler Shoriful Islam have been named to Bangladesh's 15-man team ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.
Sabbir Rahman and Mohammad Saifuddin are replaced by the pair. Shoriful shared the most wickets in the series in the UAE and would provide Bangladesh more left-arm pace options bowlers, while Sarkar would give Bangladesh more top-order batting choices and an all-around bowling option.
Sarkar and Shoriful were both initially listed as reserves for the T20 World Cup. However, Saifuddin and Sabbir's lack of performance in the UAE series and the Tri-series in New Zealand forced the team to make roster adjustments.
A few days ago, Bangladesh's bowling coach Allan Donald made suggestions regarding potential team adjustments. "We have that time, don't we? I think there's a potential the squad might change, and that's probably why they recruited two extra men. Before we leave for Australia, we have a few more days to work that out," Donald was quoted as saying by ICC.
"(Sridharan) Sriram is considering a variety of combinations in which he feels the need to be precise, take one final look, determine what needs to be done, and choose the appropriate individuals to send to perform their duties. It is therefore never simple. As a coach sitting there, "trust me, you're never sure what the ideal combination is." In the tri-series in New Zealand, Shoriful participated in three of the four games while Sarkar took part in two of them as well.
Squad: Mustafizur Rahman, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shoriful Islam, Soumya Sarkar, Musaddek Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Nurul Hasan, Afif Hossain, Ebadot Hossain, Hasan Mahmud, Litton Das, Mehidy Hassan.
Stand-by players: Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mohammad Saifuddin.
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