Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das. COURTESY
Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das are back among Bangladesh's 19-man squad for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand starting on September 1 in Dhaka.
Leg spinner Aminul Islam is the other addition while Mohammad Mithun has been dropped from the squad that played against Australia earlier this month. Rahim and Das both missed the T20Is against Australia after being disallowed into the bio-secure bubble run by the CA and BCB. Rahim missed it by a couple of days after he had to attend to a family emergency in mid-July while Das, who was nursing an injury at the time, couldn't get into the bio-bubble for attending a family emergency. Bangladesh went on to win the T20I series 4-1 against Australia, giving them a more balanced look especially at home. Mahmudullah, the captain, will have Shakib Al Hasan, Mahedi Hasan and Nasum Ahmed as the main spinners. They also added Aminul, who played the last of his seven T20Is against Zimbabwe last year.
Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam showed good form against Australia with the slightly older ball. Mohammad Saifuddin too was among wickets, and they have Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain in the squad too. Bangladesh's main worry therefore is their batting, as they averaged around 125-130 against Australia. Rahim will stabliise the middle order while Das will become another option for Mahmudullah and coach Russell Domingo in the top order that didn't do well against Australia. But there was no place for Mithun, the middle-order batter, who didn't play T20Is against Australia or Zimbabwe.
T20I squad: Mahmudullah (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mosaddek Hossain, Afif Hossain, Mohammad Naim, Nurul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Mohammad Saifuddin, Shoriful Islam, Taijul Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Aminul Islam, Nasum Ahmed
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