Najmul Hossain Shanto to captain Bangladesh in ODIs against Afghanistan

Amidst a flurry of speculations surrounding Najmul Hossain Shanto and his unwillingness to lead, it has been confirmed that the 26-year-old will lead the ODI side in their upcoming series against Afghanistan, scheduled to commence in the United Arab Emirates from November 6.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board’s president, Faruque Ahmed, had a chat with Shanto to convince him to continue as the captain. However, it is understood that the other two formats will see a change, with the Test squad set to be led by Mehidy Hasan Miraz and the T20I squad to be taken over by Taskin Ahmed or Towhid Hridoy, as per a Cricbuzz report.

As far as the 15-member squad is concerned, Mehidy will be Shanto’s deputy. Litton Das and Tanzim Shakib were not included as they continue to recover from illness and shoulder injury, respectively.

Uncapped pacer Nahid Rana has been included in the ODI squad while Litton Kumar Das was not considered for selection as he is still recovering from illness. Another notable absentee is pacer Tanzim Shakib, who failed to recover from shoulder injury. Anamul Haque, Taijul Islam, and Hasan Mahmud did not make the cut while Zakir Hasan and Nasum Ahmed have returned.

Shakib Al Hasan, who missed out on playing what was supposed to be his farewell Test in Mirpur due to security concerns, was expected to feature in the ODI series. However, his name was nowhere to be seen. Faruque disclosed the reason behind not considering Shakib for selection, adding that the all-rounder will be considered following the UAE T-10.

“When he [Shakib] could not play the last Test, he was disappointed from his side. What I feel is that when he could not play he was disappointed and did not practice. He is a very professional player and felt that because he is not into training it will not be wise for him as well as for the country to play this series. He will try to return to his former self and there is a T10 league which is not colliding with any tournament. Though we are yet to give him NOC and we provide that, he will play there [in UAE T-10] and after playing that he will see whether he can make a comeback as a cricketer or not,” Fauque was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

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Faruque was confident that Shakib had the resilience to overcome the challenges and break into the 50-over squad once again. “I still believe he can play for Bangladesh in ODIs and we have an important tournament ahead as we have three ODIs in West Indies and later the Champions Trophy and so taking everything into consideration, I feel that he will miss this tour (to UAE for the ODIs vs Afghanistan),” he said.

Bangladesh will play the three ODIs on November 6, 9 and 11 in Sharjah.

Bangladesh squad for Afghanistan ODIs

Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Zakir Hasan, Nazmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Tawhid Hridoy, Jaker Ali Anik, Mehidy Hassan Miraz (vc), Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, and Nahid Rana.

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