“It is just rest for Mahmudullah. He is one of our senior players. Since the Zimbabwe series is in the home soil, we thought to try some new guys,” Minhajul said about the rest of Mahmudullah.
At the same time, Minhajul said Mahmudullah is available to take part in the ongoing Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) despite of a break in the national team.
Along with Mahmudullah, Rubel Hossain, Al Amin Hossain and Soumya Sarkar have been dropped from the Test squad. Soumya took a rest to get married while others are not in the red-ball plan of the team management.
However, Minhajul Abedin, the chief selector of BCB, told media that Mahmudullah is rested because he has been playing regularly for a long time. Regarding Al Amin and Rubel, he said, “Al Amin suffered an injury before the first Test against Pakistan. I think it will be tough for him to play Test cricket right now, and Rubel was out a back-up plan for the first Test against Pakistan.”
Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur R ahman made a comeback to the Test side. Taskin played his last Test back in 2017 in South Africa while Mustafiz played his last Test in New Zealand in 2019.
“Mustafiz has been playing well in BCL. So we thought to try in red-ball cricket again. We discussed the head coach about the inclusion of Mustafiz and decided to call him. And Taskin is one of the bowlers who can bowl at a higher pace,” Minhajul added.
Hasan Mahmud and Yasir Ali Chowdhury are two new picks in the Test team. Hasan is known for his ability to bowl consistently at a high-pace while Rabbi is known for his ability to bat at the middle-order. Yasir hit a hundred in the ongoing BCL, which might have prompted the selectors to include him.
Meanwhile, Mushfiqur Rahim came to the national side after missing the first two legs of Pakistan series. Minhajul said, “There was no doubt about Mushfiqur’s return to the national side. He is our best batsman.”
The Zimbabwe series will commence with the one-off Test beginning on February 22 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka. After that, both teams will travel to Sylhet to play the ODI series.
The ODIs will be held on March 1st, 3rd, and 6th at Sylhet International Stadium.
The first two matches of the ODI series will begin at 1pm while the last one will start at 2pm. After that, the two-match T20Is series will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on March 9 and 11. Both the matches will begin at 6pm.
Bangladesh Squad:MominulHaque (Captain), TamimIqbal, Saif Hassan, NajmulHossainShanto, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Litton Kumar Das, Taijul Islam, Abu JayedRahi, Nayeem Hasan, EbadatHossain, Taskin Ahmed, MehidyHasanMiraz, MustafizurRahman, Hasan Mahmud and Yasir Ali Chowdhury.