Ace allrounder Shakib Al Hasan returned to the Bangladesh T20 squad after almost one year as the selectors included him in the final two matches against Zimbabwe.
Soumya Sarkar rejoins the squad alongside Mustafizur Rahman, who returned from the IPL on May 2. Soumya makes a comeback after recovering from a knee injury.
Shakib's last appearance was a Player-of-the-Match performance against Afghanistan in Sylhet in July 2023. He was the captain of the team at that time but an eye condition and a finger injury restricted his appearances after the ODI World Cup in October-November 2023, reports BSS.
Najmul Hossain Shanto has replaced him as captain in all formats this year.
Bangladesh had already clinched the five-match T20 series against Zimbabwe after taking an unassailable 3-0 lead. The last two matches will be held at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on May 10 and 12 respectively.
Shakib was rested from the first three matches, which were held in Chattogram. He, however, played three matches in Dhaka Premier League (DPL) to regain his match fitness. Shakib's performance with the bat and bowl in those three DPL matches was tremendous. He hit his first century in DPL and in doing so ended his five-year-long century draught in professional cricket.
"Shakib was in our plan for the last two T20 matches. We decided to give Shakib some game time by playing international cricket ahead of the T20 World Cup," selector Abdur Razzak said.
"He played three DPL matches after spending the holiday with his family. He is now ready to play the International Cricket."
Alongside Shakib, pacer Mustafizur Rahman was also rested from the first three T20i against Zimbabwe. Mustafizur who has been in the form of his life in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Chennai Super Kings returned to the squad for the last two matches.
"We follow the same rule in Mustafizur's case also. He came from IPL and so we wanted him to take a rest. The question was whether he would take the rest in the first three matches or for the last two matches. He decided to take rest from the first three matches," Razzak added.
To accommodate Shakib and Mustafizur in the team, Afif Hossain and Parvez Hossain Emon were dropped. Both of the players couldn't make room in the first XI for any of the three matches.
"Both-- Afif and Emon-- are in our plan still. It is not possible to give all players exposure at the same time. But they are not out of consideration," Razzak clarified.
Meanwhile, pacer Shoriful Islam was given rest to manage his workload. Shoriful, who has been playing cricket in all three formats of Bangladesh consistently for the last two years, was off-colour in the first two matches against Zimbabwe. He didn't play the third match and now the team management decided him to rest from the remainder of the series.
SQUAD:
Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Liton Das, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Shakib Al Hasan, Tawhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah, Jaker Ali Anik, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Soumya Sarkar, Tanvir Islam and Mohammad Saifuddin.
