Bangladesh announce 27-member preliminary squad for Sri Lanka tour, Mahmudullah and Mustafizur Rahman included

As part of World Test Championship (WTC), Bangladesh are set kick-off their cricket scenario by locking horns with Sri Lanka in a three-match series starting in October. Ahead of the much-anticipated red-ball series, Bangladesh Cricket Board has announced a 27-member squad for the series.

The squad also features young names like Mahmudullah and Mustafizur Rahman. The board may have named 27 members in the squad but it will eventually be reduced to 20 before the commencement of the series. BCB will finally pick 17 players from the lot and the rest will be flown back to the country.

BCB wanted to keep some stand-by players during their tour

The board had asked Riyad and Mahmudullah to focus on short formats as their performances in the traditional format were unsatisfactory. However, both the players have an opportunity to return to the Test format.

BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin revealed that the board has kept 27 members in the squad due to the present COVID-19 situation. BCB wanted to keep some stand-by players during their tour.

“This is just a preliminary squad and we are working on visas for all these players. But when we will get into the hotel for the residential camp ahead of the tour it will be shortened to 20 cricketers,” Abedin told Cricbuzz. “We are keeping everyone in the preliminary squad because we have to keep some stand-by. Considering the present COVID situation, stand-by’s are very important so we decided to keep seven.

We have picked nine pace bowlers in the preliminary squad but that does not mean we will pick all of them as six pace bowlers will travel with us in the 20-member squad. We’ll select the 17-member Test squad after going to Sri Lanka and we will send the other three cricketers back to Dhaka,” Abedin added.

Bangladesh preliminary squad: Mominul Haque (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Sadman Islam, Saif Hassan, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Liton Das, Nazmul Hasan Shanto, Mossadek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Yasir Ali, Nurul Hasan, Mehedy Hasan Miraj, Taijul Islam, Sanjamul Islam, Naeem Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Al Amin Hossain, Saifuddin, Ebadat Hossain, Abu Jayed, Hasan Mahmud.