Mahmudullah, Mustafizur Included In Preliminary Squad

Mahmudullah, Mustafizur Will Be In The Squad For Series Against Sri Lanka:

Mahmudullah was included in the 27-member preliminary squad for the series against Sri Lanka, with the players waiting for a government visa order in advance of their upcoming tour. Mahmudullah had previously been asked by team management to focus on white-ball cricket and was also not included in the list of players with test contracts.

Mustafizur Rahman was also included in the squad, despite the fact that the left-arm pacer did not have a red-ball deal. Mustafizur is one of the nine pace bowlers on the 27-member list from the leading sports website, which also includes four spinners. Bangladesh, however, is going to cut the squad down to 20 players to travel to Sri Lanka.

“Yes, Mahmoudullah is in the 27-member preliminary squad that we have prepared for government order ahead of the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka,” BCB Chief Electoral Officer Minhajul Abedin told the leading website on Thursday (September 10).

“This is just a provisional squad and we’re working on visas for all of these players, so when we get to the hotel for the camp in front of the tour, it’s going to be reduced to 20 cricketers.

“We’re keeping everyone in the preliminary squad because we’ve got to hold some stand-by. Given the current COVID situation, stand-by is really necessary, so we’ve chosen to keep seven.

We’ve picked up nine pace bowlers in the preliminary squad, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to pick all of them as six pace bowlers are going to fly with us in the 20-member squad. After going to Sri Lanka, we will pick the 17-member Test Team and send the other three cricketers back to Dhaka, “Abedin added.

The Sri Lankan tour of Bangladesh, scheduled for July-August, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bangladesh is scheduled to fly to Sri Lanka on September 27 and will play two three-day matches against the High-Performance squad that will fly with the main team.

Bangladesh is also likely to play a three-day match against Sri Lanka A on October 18, while the Test Series is likely to begin on October 24 in Kandy.