Bangladesh call up Miraz, Saifuddin for Sri Lanka T20s

Teenage prodigy Mehedi Hasan Miraz and pace-bowling allrounder Mohammad Saifuddin have broken into Bangladesh’s squad for Twenty20 International series against Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh announced a 16-man squad for the two-match series on Saturday evening.

Left-arm spinner Sunzamul Islam, who was in the ODI squad against Sri Lanka but did not feature in any of the games, was also roped in for the 20-over affairs.

The selectors dropped Rubel Hossain, Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury and Taijul Islam from the previous squad which toured New Zealand in January this year.

Mushfiqur Rahim, missed the matches against the Kiwis due to an injury, returned to the fold while other young wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hossain Sohan also made the cut.

The 20-year-old Saifuddin has his recent performance to thank for his inclusion. At the Emerging Teams Asia Cup semifinals on Saturday, he shone for Bangladesh Under-23s though the lost to their Sri Lankan counterparts.

In addition to taking seven wicket from four matches, he scored some valuable runs at the lower order.

Before this he hauled 12 wickets from three matches and struck a half-century as well at the last Bangladesh Cricket League. He took 10 wickets in four matches in the National Cricket League, cracking two fifties and had also turned heads at the Under-19 World Cup last year at home.

The T20Is against Sri Lanka will be held on Tuesday and Thursday at Colombo’s Premadasa Stadium.

Both the preceding two-match Test series and the three-match ODI series between the teams ended in 1-1 draws.

Squad:

Tamim Iqbal, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Shubashis Roy, Sunzamul Islam, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Saifuddin.