Sports Reporter :
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced on Friday the 21-member Bangladesh preliminary squad for the upcoming Sri Lanka tour. Bangladesh will play two Test matches against Sri Lanka in their Sri Lanka campaign.
The BCB has included uncapped pace trio Shoriful Islam, Mukidul Islam, Shohidul Islam, while Shuvagata Hom returned to the squad.
The cricketers, who have been selected for the preliminary squad, are: Mominul Haque, Liton Das, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal, Sadman Islam, Abu Jayed, Taijul Islam, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mehidy Hassan Miraz, Nayeem Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali, Shoriful Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Mukidul Islam, Shuvagata Hom, Shohidul Islam and Nurul Hasan Sohan.
Chief Selector Minhajul Abedin said, ” We have decided to take the preliminary squad to Sri Lanka as it would help our preparation and also give exposure to a number of players who are in our thinking for the longer version going forward. The final squad for the Test series will be announced after our inter-squad warm up game.”
He said, ” They (Shoriful, Mukidul and Shohidul) have been in our HP set up and have impressed in whichever version they have played in. Mukidul and Shohidul in particular, have caught the eye in domestic first class this season and are future Test prospects. They all have age on their side and are talented. Shuvagata is coming back after a while but he has been a consistent performer in first class cricket. We have considered him as a batting all-rounder but his off break is pretty handy also and gives us an option in the spin department.”
Bangladesh preliminary squad will leave the city for Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka on April 12. The squad will play an intra-squad warm-up match at Katunayake on April 17 and April 18 after finishing their quarantine period there.
The first Test match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be held at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy from April 21 to April 25.
The second Test match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will take place at the same venue from April 29 to May 3.
Bangladesh team will depart Sri Lanka for Bangladesh on May 4.
