Inconsistent selection policy exposed
Image: Cricfrenzy
CF Correspondent
Bangladesh’s Test squad faced another massive overhauling on Sunday as selectors brought four changes to the squad that played against Pakistan earlier this month for the one off Test against Zimbabwe.
Senior cricketer Mahmudullah was the most significant omission for the Test starting on Saturday, though it did not come as any surprise given he hit just one fifty in his last 10 Test innings since scoring an epic century against New Zealand in March last year.
What came as a surprise was the selectors’ inconsistency with the pace bowling unit, which saw Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed returning to the Test side for Rubel Hossain and Al-Amin Hossain.Bangladesh chief selector Abedin however could not justify consistency in the selection policy considering their pace bowlers Mustafizur Rahman, Al Amin Hossain and Rubel Hossain.
The decision to reduce the 16-member squad to 13 members ahead of the Test series against Zimbabwe was a clear indication that selectors were not sure about their plan of action.
A 16-member squad will start preparing from February 18. Then the management will decide the 11 players who will play and then the 13-man squad will be announced as the rest will join the Bangladesh Cricket League.
Ahead of the Pakistan Test series Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo insisted that Mustafizur need some technical work to do before returning back to Test cricket.
After just performing in one game in the BCL Mustafizur returned back and Abedin said it[ Mustafizur Test considered only for white ball cricket] was not the decision of selection panel rather it was a personal observation of the coach.
‘’We did not say anything like [Mustafizur is considered for white ball cricket only] rather the coach was thinking about it. Now the way he has returned in BCL, we are thinking he must be considered for red ball cricket. We discussed with the coach today in the morning and then we included him,’’ said Abedin
‘’The management will definitely give some idea about them. And he didn’t watch enough matches at domestic level. We have seen him bowling in two BCL matches and he is bowling like he used to bowl before,’’ he said.
‘’Al-Amin got injured from the Pakistan series. But the injury is not something serious. But the injury he has suffered, it would be difficult to continue bowling in longer version. He is not even playing this BCL match, which he was supposed to play. he could not recover. If the player don’t have the fitness to bowl in a longer version cricket, in that case, we should not take the risk,’’ he said.
‘’If you are not able to bowl after bowling couple of overs, then its difficult to continue with four bowlers in whole longer version match. So we kept him for ODI thinking of his fitness.
Abedin insisted that they did not had any long term plan with Rubel Hossain and he was included as a back-up bowler though he played in the last Test against Pakistan.
This is not a change. We took him as back-up bowler. Then we took him in Pakistan series as back-up for Al-Amin and he was included after Al Amin got injured. We have discussed with our team management, they want him to return after being fully ready. Because we are playing against Zimbabwe at home pacers won’t have that much dominance. We will have a planning of how many pace bowlers we will include in that match. Management also wants to see, so we have taken some new players like Hasan Mahmud,’’ he said adding that they have taken more pace bowlers as the management wants to prepare for the Pakistan Test.
‘’No, I just said, we want to include more pace bowlers, because the management wants to prepare some new pace bowlers. And we have some Test matches in Pakistan, so that we can also take that preparation. We will be busy after playing this Test with one-days and T20s. we don’t have much opportunity for training. We will try to work on Test preparation with as many days as we have left.
