Dhaka, April 20 (CRICKETNMORE) The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Thursday recalled medium-pacer Shafiul Islam and left out Nurul Hasan, Subashis Roy and Shuvagata Hom from the 15-strong team for the ICC Champions Trophy, to be held in England and Wales in June.
This will be the first time Bangladesh are participating in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy in more than a decade. They last p0layed in the Champions' Trophy in 2006 under the captaincy of Habibul Bashar.
The cut-off date for announcing squad is April 25 for the eighth edition of the eight-team tournament. South Africa and Australia have already announced their squads for the tournament, second in importance only to the showcase event World Cup.
Bashar, one of the ambassadors for this year's tournament, said qualification for the tournament was a big step forward.
"It is definitely a big step forward for our country to qualify directly to this year's Champion's Trophy, and it is really important for the team as well," Bashar was quoted as saying by an ICC statement.
"Now we have the opportunity to demonstrate how good our ODI skills are at the present time."
The selectors also announced the team for a tri-series that Bangladesh will take part in, featuring Ireland and New Zealand, in Ireland, to prepare for the Champions Trophy.
"It is important to plan separately for this tournament, which is why we are going to Ireland for a tri-nation series before the Champions Trophy. That will help us greatly in preparing for English conditions. You will see a different Bangladesh in this year's Champions Trophy," Bashar said.
The tri-nation series will be played from May 12 to 24.
Meanwhile Shafiul, who last featured for Bangladesh in the home series against England in October 2016 before injuring his hamstring during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) was later part of the Test squad for the one-off game against India in Hyderabad. He, however didn't feature in the playing XI.
The rest of the 15-man squad for the Champions Trophy is on expected lines, with Mashrafe Mortaza leading and Mushfiqur Rahim being his deputy.
Bangladesh will start their Champions Trophy campaign against England on June 1 at The Oval in London.
Squad: Mashrafe Mortaza (Captain), Mushfiqur Rahim (vice-capt, WK), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Sunzamul Islam, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam.
Agnecy