Bangladesh add Soumya, Shoriful to T20 World Cup squad

SPORTS DESK: Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made two changes to the Bangladesh squad for the ICC T20 World Cup starting on Sunday in Australia.

The board axed batter Sabbir Rahman and allrounder Mohammad Saifuddin to pave the way for left-handed batter Soumya Sarkar and left-arm bowler Shoriful Islam.

The newly-added players were on the standby list for the World Cup.

October 14 was the final cut-off date to finalize the squad for all the teams. BCB made the change at the last moment.

Sabbir and Saifuddin will now return home from New Zealand where the Bangladesh team played a tri-nation series with the hosts and Pakistan.

After making a surprising comeback with the last Asia Cup, Sabbir played four T20Is and failed to prove his mettle in international cricket. In the last four innings, his best was 14.

Saifuddin, in his last five T20Is, bagged only three wickets. In the match against Pakistan in the recently-concluded Tri-Series, he conceded more than 50 runs and failed to grab any wickets. This performance prompted the team management to not include him in the World Cup squad.

Meanwhile, The Bangladesh T20 World Cup side will head to Brisbane on Saturday where they will play two warm-up games against Afghanistan and South Africa on October 17 and 19 respectively before starting their campaign in Hobart on 24 October. This year, Bangladesh are playing the Super 12s round of the World Cup directly.

Bangladesh squad for T20 World Cup: Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Najmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar, Litton Das, Afif Hossain, Yasir Ali, Musaddek Hossain Saikat, Nurul Hasan Sohan (WK/Vice Captain), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain. (UNB)