Bangladesh‘s new selection panel, led by Habibul Bashar, has announced an unchanged 15-man squad – which beat Pakistan 2-1 last month at home – for the first two ODIs against New Zealand, to be played on April 17 and 20 in Dhaka. The third ODI will be played on April 23 in Chattogram.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz will lead the side, as announced earlier, and while the team is coming off a series win, there are question marks around Saif Hassan and Afif Hossain, who averaged 17.33 and 19.00 respectively in three innings apiece in Pakistan.
Bashar said that his panel wanted to have continuity in selection, and wanted to see a little more of Saif in particular before taking a call.
“Bangladesh played good cricket in the last series,” Bashar said. “There were players in the squad who didn’t get a chance to play in the XI. We have set a policy that we want to give a player enough opportunities in the team. We don’t want to exclude someone from the team without giving him adequate chances. We believe in continuity, which is why we kept the same team.
“Obviously, the previous selection committee had a plan. They included Saif as an opener in the last series. We want to settle that position in the team. We believe that three matches are not enough for a player. We want to give him some more chances. We don’t want to chop and change. Saif Hassan will get that opportunity, and only then we can take a decision.”
The selectors have also retained the same pace attack of Nahid Rana, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam, breaking from the recent tradition of rotating them around.
Five members of the Bangladesh ODI squad are currently playing in PSL 2026: Nahid, Mustafizur, Shoriful, Rishad Hossain, and Tanzid Hasan. They will link up with the rest of the squad members on April 12, and only Mustafizur is expected to return to the PSL after the ODI series ends on April 23. The two teams will then play a three-T20I series.
Bangladesh squad for ODI series against New Zealand
Mehidy Hasan Miraz (capt), Soumya Sarkar, Saif Hassan, Tanzid Hassan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, Litton Das (wk), Afif Hossain, Mahidul Islam, Rishad Hossain, Tanvir Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Nahid Rana
