BCB has full faith on senior players: Khaled Mahmud

Bangladesh cricket team director Khaled Mahmud Sujon dismissed the notion that the senior players were dropped from the Zimbabwe- bound T20 squad in the name of rest.

He also made it clear that the senior players are in the board's greater plan for the upcoming multinational tournaments-- Asia Cup and T20 World Cup, reports BSS.

Talks were doing the rounds about the fate of the senior players when Mahmudullah Riyad, the original captain of T20 format and Mushfiqur Rahim were rested from the T20 series only.

Earlier, Shakib took a break from the Zimbabwe series and Tamim Iqbal had already retired from the shortest format of the cricket.

BCB Cricket Operations Committee Chairman Jalal Yunus talked about a new brand of T20 team when Nurul Hasan Sohan was appointed its captain.

However, the idea of this brand new T20 team in T20 is only for the Zimbabwe series. After these three matches, BCB will walk the path of forming the team with senior-junior combination, said the team director who is also an influential director of the board.

"At some point, we've to bring up changes and that will be a big deal. But I would not say that the transition period has already started. We believe seniors still have the ability to give something. I think in the interim period it's our job to highlight the juniors properly," Mahmud said here today after the lunch with the Zimbabwe-bound cricketers, arranged by Cricket Operations at a five-star hotel in the capital.

During the lunch, ODI Captain Tamim Iqbal and Zimbabwe T20 series Captain Nurul Hasan Sohan were also present.

Team Director Mahmud was unable to be with the Bangladesh team during their tour in West Indies. However as the board organised a lunch, he was there as a policy maker to discuss the overall situation ahead of the Zimbabwe series.

Mahmud said there is no change in the leadership or there is no plan to keep the seniors out. At the same time, he said there is no plan to experiment also as they are yet to strengthen their feet in T20 format.

"Many people are talking about experiment in this format but we are not going to do any experiment. We're yet to prove ourselves in this format. It's not basically Riyad, Mushfiqur being left out of the squad, or Shakib being left out, I think we want to see some guys. We want to play them in a place which is comparatively easier. We want to know about them. On the other hand, we already knew the capability of the senior players," Mahmud remarked.

Not for only one or two matches to watch the youngsters, Mahmud is in favor of giving them a chance for the whole series.

"We want to give these boys enough chances to show their mettle. If we talk about Munim Shahriar, he played only two matches in the two T20 series. He couldn't play some more matches due to injury. I think it is very important for cricketers to get a chance to play the whole series. You can't judge players after just one or two matches. They should get enough chances before being left out."