Senior players rested, not dropped: Khaled Mahmud
Bangladesh cricket team’s director Khaled Mahmud dismissed the notion that senior players were dropped from the Zimbabwe-bound Twenty20 International squad in the guise of being rested, report news agency BSS.
He also made it clear that the seniors are part of the board’s greater plan for the upcoming multinational tournaments-- Asia Cup and ICC T20 World Cup.
Rumours were running rampant about the fate of the senior players when Mahmudullah, the captain of the T20 format and Mushfiqur Rahim were rested from the T20I series.
However, Mahmudullah and Mushfiq were named in the squad for the three-match One-Day International (ODI) series against the same opponents.
Earlier, Shakib took a break from the Zimbabwe series and Tamim Iqbal has already retired from the shortest format of cricket.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) cricket operations chairman Jalal Yunus also talked about the board wanting to see a new aggressive brand of cricket from the youthful T20 team and with that vision they handed Nurul Hasan the captaincy for the Zimbabwe series.
But after the three matches against Zimbabwe, BCB will return to its old formula of forming a team with a blend of seniors and juniors in T20s, according to team director Khaled Mahmud.
“At some point, we’ve to bring up changes and that will be a big deal. But I would not say that the transition period has already started.
“We believe seniors still have the ability and have something to offer. I think in the interim period it’s our job to highlight the juniors properly,” Mahmud said on Sunday after a lunch with the Zimbabwe-bound cricketers, arranged by BCB cricket operations at a five-star hotel in the capital.
During the lunch, ODI Captain Tamim Iqbal and Zimbabwe T20 series captain Nurul Hasan were present.
Team director Mahmud was unable to be with the Bangladesh team during their tour in West Indies. However, he was present at the lunch programme as a policy maker to discuss the overall situation ahead of the Zimbabwe series.
Mahmud said there is no plan to oust the seniors from the T20I team. At the same time said they don’t plan to experiment in T20 format.
“Many people are talking about experimenting in this format but we are not going to do any experiments. We’re yet to prove ourselves in this format. It’s not about leaving Riyad (Mahmudullah), Mushfiq out of the squad, or leaving out Shakib. I think we want to test some guys. We want to test them in a comparatively easier situation. We want to know about them. On the other hand, we already know the capability of the senior players,” Mahmud remarked.
Mahmud is also in favor of giving the youngsters a chance for the whole series, not just drop them after one or two games.
“We want to give these boys enough chances to show their mettle. If we talk about Munim Shahriar, he played only two matches in the two T20 series. He couldn’t play some more matches due to injury. I think it is very important for cricketers to get a chance to play the whole series. You can’t judge players after just one or two matches. They should get enough chances before being left out.”