SPORTS REPORTER

Sunday’s press conference held by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) was the perfect example of a board deflecting the issues instead of acknowledging them.

In a lengthy presser, attended by chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu, selector Abdur Razzak, and BCB cricket operations committee chairman Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, the board announced T20 squads for the upcoming UAE and Pakistan tours, alongside naming Liton Das as the skipper of the shortest format till the 2026 T20 World Cup.

However, from what could be surmised from the statements made, it seemed as if the board was trying to hide the elephant in the room – Bangladesh’s struggle in forming a squad with players backed by performances.

Batter Jaker Ali, all-rounder Mahedi Hasan, and leg-spinner Rishad Hossain turned up with noteworthy T20 performances in recent times, but the selectors clearly struggled to form a squad with the rest. Liton has himself struggled for form.

“In Liton’s case, experience is crucial,” Fahim backed the decision to make Liton the T20 captain.

“We don’t have many experienced cricketers at the moment. There have been discussions about his form, but he has the potential. If he can organise his game, he’ll be a key asset. Everyone is optimistic about his tactical abilities, and we believe he’ll play an important role once he starts performing,” Fahim added.

The irony is that, Fahim, before being included in his current role at BCB, has often made statements about how it was high time for players like Liton, with more than five years of international experience, to have already established themselves as performers in the side.

The current ODI and Test skipper Shanto, from whom Liton took over the charge of the T20 side, is another player who got a nod in the side for the upcoming series solely based on his experience.

“Shanto has played roughly 50 matches, so he brings in some experience,” chief selector Lipu explained.

Shanto’s T20 form has been under scrutiny for a while now, and to include him in the squad that already has players of a similar profile like Tanzid Tamim, Soumya Sarkar, and Liton made it clear that the BCB was banking only on his experience to come through for the side.

Meanwhile, opener Mohammad Naim, who remained the top run-getter in the recent Bangladesh Premier League and the National Cricket League, was named in the Bangladesh ‘A’ side for their New Zealand series, with hopes of him “expressing his full potential” before being considered for the national side.

The BCB also could not clarify the exact approach with which the Tigers would go ahead in the format in the coming days, with chief selector Lipu mentioning something as generic as: “Whenever the national team plays, the target is always to win. But to achieve that, I think, considering the transformation that is going on in T20 cricket, we need to prepare in the bilateral series for improving our average performances in any global tournament. We have to practice, and that should be reflected in the bilateral series. We can lose by a big margin, but the approach should be the same. This is our message for them.”

Meanwhile, Rakibul Hasan was the highest wicket-taker in the just-concluded Dhaka Premier League, yet he was not named in the squad as he was considered a like-for-like option with the included Tanvir Islam and Nasum Ahmed, who was left out.

Considering everything, even after the lengthy presser, the question over the direction that the side wanted to take and what profiles are required remained unclear as always.