ICC World Cup 2019: Bangladesh Squad

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Tuesday (April 16) named a 15-man squad for the impending World Cup, which will be co-hosted by England and Wales from May 30, 2019. Among the players, Abu Jayed Chowdhury Rahi was the surprise inclusion in the Bangladesh team. The 25-year-old pace bowler, who has already played 5 Tests and 3 T20Is for his country, is likely to make his One Day International (ODI) debut in the World Cup. Taking his current form and fitness into consideration, he has been picked up in the squad instead of Shafiul Islam and Taskin Ahmed.

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The exclusion of Taskin Ahmed and Imrul Kayes from the World Cup squad faced huge criticism both in social and mainstream media. Taskin Ahmed, the 24-year-old fast bowler, showed his brilliant performance in the sixth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), taking 22 wickets in 12 group stage games. However, he sustained injury towards the end of the BPL 6 in February though he featured in a Dhaka Premier League (List A) match after recovering from his injury recently, but failed to impress the selectors with his fitness. 

Veteran player Imrul Kayes is perhaps the most unlucky player. Despite having scintillating form throughout the last year, scoring 436 runs with two centuries in eight matches, the player failed to claim a spot in the World Cup squad because the team management wanted a right and left-handed combination at the top order. For this reason, he was not taken to the squad.

There might be a change in the World Cup squad after the end of the tri-nation series in Ireland. The BCB president said that change could be made in the squad till May 23 based on the performance of the players. Out of 19 players, who are currently in Ireland, the World Cup team will see the omission of 4 players having miserable performance in the tri-nation series, including host Ireland and West Indies.

Bangladesh World Cup Squad: Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Miraz, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Jayed Rahi, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mosaddek Hossain.