Shanto-Shadman guide A team against HP

Najmul Hossain Shanto and Shadman Islam guided Bangladesh A team towards a convincing total on the opening day of the four-day match against the High-Performance team at Chattogram on Thursday. A team ended the first day of play at 260-5 after 90 overs.

The A team and HP team will play two four-day matches and three one-day matches at Chattogram.

Mominul Haque, the regular Test captain was made the skipper of the A team, though he is not taking part in the first of the two four-day matches that began on Thursday that left Mohammad Mithun as stand-in captain.

Mithun, who missed the cut for the T20 World Cup squad and was also excluded from the national contract, could not do much for the A team either as he was run out for only nine runs.

Shanto, excluded from the one-day and Twenty20 contract but still holds the one for Tests, proved his worth by playing an innings of 96 runs but was unlucky as he missed a ton by only four runs.

Shadman, who is in constant competition with Saif Hassan, edged past him with a score of 58 from 133 balls, while Saif managed only 15 runs. – TBP