||Desk Report||

A lot of batsmen have partnered Tamim Iqbal at the opening spot of the Bangladesh national team since the southpaw made his debut for the Tigers. Many of those batters came after proving themselves in age-group cricket or domestic circuit, shone for a while or, were out of the equation too early.

Nazmul Hossain, too, is one of those who has come to the national team after crossing all the necessary hurdles, but has so far failed to flourish at the international levels.

One would easily opt for the left-hander to open for Bangladesh in their current opening-spot crisis due to the absence of Tamim, especially after the 20-year-old’s top-spot finish in Dhaka Premier League’s run-scoring charts last season. However, with 20 runs to his name in three ODIs, it is easy to say that Nazmul hasn’t done justice to his talent.

And now it appears that the youngster is going to lose his place in the team as Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes has hinted that the opener’s spot will be reconsidered.

“We picked Shanto [Nazmu Hossainl] to take his place and give him an opportunity as a young man who has got a lot of talent, as a lot of Bangladeshi young batsmen have,” Rhodes told reporters after the practice session on Tuesday.

“Of course we’d love to get off to good starts. Every coach would want that. It doesn’t always happen. Sadly, Tamim breaking his finger in that first game was a big blow to us.

“And he’s [Nazmul] not quite done it yet. So his place will be looked at in selection. We’ll go through the side this afternoon – Mash, myself and the selectors – and we will be looking at all the team. I won’t be revealing any plans on the side. But of course we’ll be looking at if it is a little bit of a concern,” he said.