Since Tamim Iqbal was rested from the Emerging Asia Cup so that he would be fully recovered from his back injury in time for the World Cup, Tanzid comes in on the strength of his performances there, where he scored three half centuries and put himself in contention for the opening spot.
Shakib Al Hasan, who was named the new ODI captain yesterday, will be leading Bangladesh in the next Asia Cup.
Bangladesh also stuck with Mohammad Naim as their opening batsman despite the success of rival Rony Talukdar. Tanzid was promoted to that role.
BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin told reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday, “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.”
After moving up from the U-19 squad, Shamim spent time at the High Performance Unit. We are confidence in his talents after seeing him play well in the most recent T20 series and bouncing back from a performance slump after the 2021 T20 World Cup.
“Sheikh Mehedy was injured in BPL and suffered a lot, but he was in our T20 squad and did well in the Emerging Cup, and we are hoping that he can express himself in the Asia Cup,” he said.
Nasum Ahmed rejoins the team with returning starters Shamim and Mehedy. Bangladesh mulled about whether to include Nasum Ahmed or Taijul Islam as their second left-arm spinner for one-day internationals. While Nasum is more of a defensive spinner, Taijul is more of an offensive one. The top selector said, “We went for Nasum because 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.”
Although he was included in the original 32-man team for the Asia Cup, veteran campaigner Mahmudullah did not make the final cut and now faces an uncertain future. The 37-year-old Mahmudullah hasn’t featured in any ODIs since March, when Bangladesh took on England.
“We had lengthy debates regarding Mahmudullah at first, but after a lot of discussion, team management offered us a strategy, such as how they want to play in the future and against which team, and we left Mahmudullah off. We agreed with the management’s assessment and supported their proposal. This decision does not mean Mahmudullah would not be able to participate in the next World Cup, Minhajul added. “The head coach has a plan and how he wants to run the team, and we discussed with the captain as well.”
This is our Asia Cup team, not our World Cup squad. Let’s put together a World Cup team and then we can tell you (if Mahmudullah is included) where he stands. This decision (not to include Mahmudullah in the squad) was reached after “discussions about Asia Cup and the team management’s plan regarding playing an extra spinner for pacer,” he said.