Bangladesh pick three uncapped players for first two England T20Is

Bangladesh have named three uncapped players - Towhid Hridoy, Rejaur Rahman and Tanvir Islam - in their squad for the first two T20Is of the three-match series against England.

Meanwhile, Rony Talukdar is back in the Bangladesh set-up after eight years, while Shamim Hossain also makes a comeback having last played for Bangladesh in November 2021. All these five aforementioned players did well in this year’s Bangladesh Premier League.

Talukdar, who played his only T20I in July 2015, was the second-highest run-getter in the last edition of BPL. The 32-year-old slammed 425 runs at a strike rate of 129.17, while Shamim got 175 runs at a strike rate of 135.65. 

Hridoy, who is also part of the ODI squad, slammed 403 runs at a strike rate of 140. Meanwhile, left-arm spinner Tanvir and right-arm seamer Rejaur claimed 17 and 13 wickets respectively in the competition.

"All of them performed well in the BPL and that is the reason we picked them. Rony really played well in the tournament while it was the same for Shamim and as far as the debutants are concerned they did well in the shortest format to earn their spot," BCB's chief selector Minhajul Abedin told Cricbuzz.

Yasir Ali, Soumya Sarkar, Ebadot Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain and Shoriful Islam have all been left out of the squad but Abedin said they can always make a comeback. "We are going to sit with them in the coming days to discuss with them about our plans because they are under our 20 to 22 members pool."

Bangladesh lost the first ODI by three wickets on Wednesday (March 1). The next two ODIs will be played on March 3 and 6 before the T20I series gets underway on March 9. 

Squad for first two T20Is: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Litton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Nasum Ahmed, Nurul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Rony Talukdar, Towhid Hridoy, Rejaur Rahman, Tanvir Islam.

(Image credit: Twitter)