Mahmudullah and Mustafizur Rahman were also included in the squad.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Thursday (September 10) named the 27-member preliminary squad for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka for a three-match Test series in October as part of the Test Championship with the players awaiting government approval for visas ahead of their upcoming tour.
Mahmudullah Riyad, Bangladesh T20I skipper, who was earlier asked by the national team management to concentrate on white-ball cricket, and the left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman – who doesn't have a red-ball BCB contract, have been included in the 27-member preliminary squad for the Sri Lanka Tests.
Mustafizur is among nine pace bowlers in the 27-member list which also has four spinners. However, the 27-member squad will be trimmed down to 20 players who all will travel to Sri Lanka.
Later, the 17-member final Test squad will be selected from these 20 cricketers after going to Sri Lanka and the rest of the three cricketers will then fly back to Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin confirmed on Thursday: “Yes, Mahmudullah is there in the 27-member preliminary squad that we prepared for government order ahead of the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. This is just a preliminary squad and we are working on visas for all these players. But when we will get into the hotel for the residential camp ahead of the tour it will be reduced to 20 cricketers.”
He added, “We are keeping everyone in the preliminary squad because we have to keep some stand-by. Considering the present COVID situation, stand-by's are very important so we decided to keep seven. We have picked nine pace bowlers in the preliminary squad but that does not mean we will pick all of them as six pace bowlers will travel with us in the 20-member squad. We'll select the 17-member Test squad after going to Sri Lanka and we will send the other three cricketers back to Dhaka.”
Noteworthy, Bangladesh is expected to travel to Sri Lanka on September 27 and will play two three-day matches against their High-Performance squad, as well as, are also likely to play a three-day match against Sri Lanka A from October 18 with the Test series is likely to begin on October 24 in Kandy.
Here’s Bangladesh preliminary squad:
Mominul Haque (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Sadman Islam, Saif Hassan, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Liton Das, Nazmul Hasan Shanto, Mossadek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Yasir Ali, Nurul Hasan, Mehedy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Sanjamul Islam, Naeem Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Al Amin Hossain, Saifuddin, Ebadat Hossain, Abu Jayed, Hasan Mahmud.
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)