Bangladesh recall Al-Amin Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain for New Zealand tour

Bangladesh on Friday recalled pace bowler Al-Amin Hossain and all-rounder Mosaddek Hossain in their 20-member squad for the upcoming one-day international and Twenty20 international series against New Zealand. Mosaddek played his last ODI against Sri Lanka in July 2019 and T20I against India in November in the same year. Al-Amin played the last of his 15 ODIs against Zimbabwe in March 2020. Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed, who was in the squad for the T20 series against Zimbabwe but did not play any game, was also included in the team. Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said the absence of all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan prompted them to implement most of the changes. “Since Shakib is not available, we brought Mosaddek as he is also an all-rounder and an experienced player,” he said. “We picked Nasum for the same reason. He did well in domestic limited over matches. He came ahead of Taijul Islam, who we want now to focus more on Test cricket.” Bangladesh granted Shakib leave to skip the series to be with his expectant wife in the United States. In January, Shakib returned to international cricket to face the visiting West Indies, after serving out a one-year ban for his failure to report multiple corrupt approaches. He became player of the series in his comeback one-day international series but could play only part of the Test series due to a thigh injury he picked up during the first Test in Chittagong. Bangladesh will play three ODI matches against New Zealand and as many T20Is from 20 March 20 to 1 April. The Bangladesh team will leave Dhaka on 23 February. Minhajul said a large squad was announced since the players had to stay in mandatory quarantine in New Zealand before taking the field for the series. Bangladesh squad: Tamim Iqbal, Mosaddek Hossain, Najmul Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Liton Das, Mahmudullah Riyad, Afif Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Naim Sheikh, Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rubel Hossain, Mahedi Hasan and Nasum Ahmed.