Mahmudullah pips Tamim to captaincy for first SL T20

ESPNCricinfo: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) named Mahmudullah as the T20 captain for the first game of the two-match series against Sri Lanka, starting February 15.

Mahmudullah will stand in for Shakib Al Hasan as captain after the allrounder failed to sufficiently recover from his finger injury which he had sustained during the ODIs. Uncapped left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam replaced Shakib in the squad.

Nazmul had been performing well in domestic cricket, particularly the BPL, through the last three seasons.

Mahmudullah, meanwhile, pipped Tamim Iqbal to take over the T20 captaincy after BCB president Nazmul Hassan had named Tamim as vice-captain of the T20 team in December, while naming Shakib as new Test captain.

In 2014, Tamim was bypassed for the T20 captaincy, also against Sri Lanka, when Mashrafe Mortaza took over from Mushfiqur Rahim despite Tamim being the designated deputy.

Squad: Mahmudullah (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Sabbir Rahman, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Abu Hider, Abu Jayed, Ariful Hoque, Mahedi Hasan, Zakir Hasan, Afif Hossain, Nazmul Ismail.

Shakib ruled out of first Sri Lanka T20

Dhaka, AFP: Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan has been ruled out of the first Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka after he failed to recover from a finger injury, it was announced Tuesday. 

The star all-rounder also missed the recent Test series against Sri Lanka after sustaining the injury during the one-day international tri-series final against the same opponents in January. 

Bangladesh, who lost the tri-series final and the Test series, initially included Shakib in their squad for the two T20 matches, the first of which is on Thursday in Dhaka. 

“He was making good progress so we thought he might be available for both the matches. But it seems now he cannot play the first Twenty20,” said chief selector Minhajul Abedin. 

“We will see how he goes before we decide about playing him in the second match.” The second match will be played in Sylhet on Sunday.