Last shake-up for local stars before international assignments

The Bangladesh Premier League's (BPL) last day's round robin fixtures would settle the eliminator line-up as the tournament gears towards climax. But for local stars, the focus would very much turn to Bangladesh's upcoming series against Sri Lanka in March. 

Of particular attention is the case of Sylhet Strikers batter Najmul Hossain Shanto, who will lead the Tigers in all three formats from the upcoming series. Shanto had found going difficult in this BPL so far, despite having flourished at the international scene in recent times. BCB, however, were keeping their faith in the captain, given that circumstances in international circuit would be different to franchise's environment.

"Cricket is such a game that you play one season badly, then you play the next season well. This fluctuation of form would be there. So, I don't believe that someone doing badly means they will do badly going forward too," cricket operations chairman Jalal Yunus told the media yesterday.

"You see, Shanto is not doing well but he is a class player. When our international series begins, you will see that he is back in form. That is very much possible," he added.

In the ongoing BPL, top-order stars such as Liton Das, Anamul Haque, Mohammad Naim Sheikh, and Soumya Sarkar scored runs, and more importantly, as did middle-order batters Mushfiqur Rahim, Towhid Hridoy, and Mahmudullah Riyad.

Since only Mahmudullah and Hridoy were picked as middle-order batters in the T20I series, it remains to be seen how Bangladesh solve their dilemma at number six and seven in the batting order. Without Shakib Al Hasan, who had been rested for the whole Sri Lanka series, the T20I side's task would be a lot more challenging in the coming series.

Mehedi Hasan Miraz has played cameo knocks on quite a few occasions but had to make way for Sheikh Mahedi Hasan in the T20I squad as the latter made his case with the ball, picking up 15 wickets so far as the third-highest wicket-taker of the tournament. The bowlers have mostly turned up. Shoriful Islam ended his tournament as the highest wicket-taker so far with 22 wickets. Taskin, however, was not able to reach his peak form but yet got wickets under his belt. Youngster Tanzim Shakib, too, has managed some contributions and for all pacers, death bowling skills would be the highlight during the white-ball series. The fresh inclusion of Aliss Al Islam, who was rewarded for his BPL performances with a place in the T20 squad, would be the mystery bowling option that the Tigers can work around.

With this year's T20 World Cup in mind, Jalal Yunus said, "The way we are heading to the T20 World Cup, we have five T20s against Zimbabwe [after Sri Lanka series] and the BPL is ongoing. So we are going through preparations. We are also planning for a series with USA teams [as preparation for World Cup] so all those fall under preparation."