Bangladesh squad for New Zealand T20Is: Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das return in 19-member T20I squad

Bangladesh squad for New Zealand T20Is: The Bangladeshi selection committee has announced a 19-member squad for the upcoming T20I series.

Bangladesh have announced a mammoth 19-member squad for their upcoming five-match series against New Zealand which is scheduled to commence from September 1.

Having most recently defeated Australia 4-1 in their first-ever bilateral series victory against them, BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board) have made three changes to that squad.

It goes without saying that Bangladesh’s squad has been bolstered by the return of wicket-keeper batsmen Liton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim. Both Das and Rahim had missed the Australia series due to family and quarantine-related reasons respectively.

Mainstay of their batting lineup, Das and Rahim’s presence should further improve Bangladesh against the Kiwis. Other than this pair, spinner Aminul Islam has also been brought back. Islam, 21, had played the last of his seven T20Is against Zimbabwe in Dhaka almost 18 months ago.

Opening batsman Tamim Iqbal, who had also missed the Australia series due to a knee injury, continues to work on his rehabilitation and won’t be taking any part against New Zealand.

Batsman Mohammad Mithun is the only player to get dropped from the squad which had played against Australia despite not getting a match. However, it is Mithun’s ordinary recent form across formats in the recent times which has worked against him.

With the series against New Zealand going to be Bangladesh’s last before the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, the selectors have given an impression of trying to provide opportunities to as many players as possible before the world event.

Bangladesh squad for New Zealand T20Is

Mahmudullah (c), 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.