BCB will finalize WC squad after tri-nation
Photo- BCB
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh will wait till the last deadline as far as their selecting their ICC World Cup squad is concerned, said Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan on Monday.
Nazmul’s arrived at the BCB headquarter in the noon to have a meeting with the national selection panel and it was enough to create an unexpected drama in the local media circuit.
The reason behind the hype was largely due to the fact that some of the other cricketing nation had already started announcing their squad for the biggest global event, scheduled from May April 25.
However, Nazmul poured water in the entire hype by announcing that though they will announce the 15-member squad of the World Cup in a day or two it might be changed in the coming days considering they have some injury concern as well as issues regarding form of some of the cricketers.
‘’I think the team will be announced in a day or two. I just wanted to know when they will announce the team. Initially we felt that we need to announce the team by April 18 and it cannot be changed easily unless there are any injury issues. But now we came to know that we can still have time until May 22 and we can change the team during this time frame without asking anyone,’’ said Nazmul.
‘’We have the tri-nation that will end on April 18 and still we will have time after that. So I asked them to give the squad for World Cup but it can be changed,’’ he said.
‘’Basically some of our cricketers are not carrying good form while there are injury issues that is becoming a concern for us as we believe some of them will be playing in the World Cup but still they are not totally fit,’’ he said.
‘’The reason behind this is due to the fact that some of the cricketers who are carrying injuries can make a comeback through performing well,’’ he said.
‘’While who are in off-form can also make a comeback through performing well in the meantime,’’ he said. Bangladesh's will be hoping that they can have a full fit squad ahead of the World Cup as they have been hit by injuries to several key players, including star pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman.
The 23-year-old left arm bowler sprained his ankle warming up for a Dhaka Premier League match on Thursday, joining a growing injury list which includes batsman Mahmudullah Riyad and pace bowler Rubel Hossain.
Bangladesh had previously barred the injury-prone Mustafizur from playing in the Indian Premier League ahead of the World Cup, which starts May 30. It had let him take part in the domestic 50-over league to keep match-fit however.
The new injury is expected to sideline him for at least two weeks.
"Mustafizur is slightly better now. We are hopeful he will play the World Cup," Bangladesh Cricket Board chief physician Debashis Chowdhury told reporters.
Debashis is being kept busy by the squad.
Mahmudullah aggravated a shoulder injury during a recent tour of New Zealand and only returned to tentative training last week.
Rubel Hossain has been suffering from a side strain.
"We hope to start his training session within a day or two," said Debashis.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim, who missed the two Tests in New Zealand started individual training last week while batsman Tamim Iqbal was expected to resume in the upcoming days.
Pace bowler Taskin Ahmed, who was in superb form before a ligament injury ruled out him of the New Zealand tour, played one domestic league game last week.
Off-spinner Mehidy Hasan hurt his thumb in a league game last week but returned to action on Monday.
However, Debashis was hopeful all of the squad would be match-fit for the tournament.
"With the amount of time we have and the current improvement rate of the players, I don’t think any one will miss the World Cup," he said.
Bangladesh still face a race against time however as they are to play a tri-nation one-day international tournament in Ireland from May 5 against Ireland and the West Indies.
"We hope we can field all our regular players in the tri-nation and World Cup. We hope to announce the squad in a day or two," said chief selector Minhajul Abedin.
