[akabir77]

Aminul Islam, who led the Bangladesh in their first World Cup campaign, prefers the experienced squad for the upcoming World Cup to the young-blood and believes the selectors would pick up the right squad favouring the experienced players.

"Who knows better about the worth of experience of a player than me? I'm not saying it as I had led the Bangladesh team to the 2003 World Cup. I was lucky that I got a bunch of experienced cricketers; as a result, we made the nation proud of beating Pakistan," said Islam adding, "But, the nation became distressed at cricketers' poor performance in the next World Cup where the experienced players were overlooked. Even, Bangladesh lost to minnow Canada."

Islam wants to give the room to openers Javed Omar and Rajin Saleh in the 15-member squad instead of openers Mehrab Hossain Jr and Tamim Iqbal, and he pins his hope on the remaining 13 cricketers, who are now in Zimbabwe playing the four-match ODI series.

"You can experiment someone as a debutant in the remaining matches after ensuring the series, but you can't make experiment at the top -level tournament like World Cup," opined Islam.

"Tamim is yet to make his debut in ODI. I don't want to underestimate Mehrab, but he is really not in a position to play for Bangladesh in the top level show," explained Islam.

Former cricketer Islam, who is now an Abahani coach, also explained the inclusion of Rajin Saleh and Javed Omar in the side.

"Rajin is having an excellent time in the ongoing Premier Cricket League. Besides, he is a utility cricketer with his outstanding fielding. You can make him (Rajin) open the innings, again you can bring him in the middle order."

The Abahani coach prefers Javed Omar to open the innings along with Shahriar Nafees though the gritty opener is abhorrent of the cricket fans due to his lackluster performance .

"Everyone sees Javed's negative side rather than the positive. He can prolong the innings and you would find Javed's such significant innings looking at the record book. I want this character batsman in the 50-over affair as Shahriar plays enough aggressively. So, it is not necessary that both the openers must be similar," opined Islam.

After settling the opening pair, Islam brings in a slight change in the middle order to upgrade Mohammad Ashraful to the number five from six and move Habibul Bashar down to number six from five.

"Aftab must play at number three and Saqib at number four. Ashraful should be given the fifth position, instead of Bashar, to give him more time in the middle. Besides, Ashraful used to play both spinner and seamer and his running-between-the-wicket is excellent like Saqib and both the batsmen can put on a big total on the board if their partnership is settled once," clarified Islam.

Islam said, "Habibul lacks consistency. Once he scores a fifty, then makes a naught in the very next match. Besides, he was in run drought in the domestic league, but he is a good captain. Habibul certainly knows what Ashraful can do if he gets more time to play and Habibul should consider it in the grater interest of the team."

Wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud, spinner Mohammad Rafique and pacemen Mashrafee Bin Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain are the automatic choices of Islam's dream team.

On whether a specialist spinner or a pacer would perform at the number eleven, Islam prefers to include paceman Mohammad Sharif instead of spinner Abdur Razzak.

"Bangladesh have to play against India and Sri Lanka in the group matches. There are a few left-handed batsmen in the Sri Lankan side so far I know and it is a problem for Bangladesh to play three left-handed spinners against Sri Lanka," said Islam, who hammered a century in his debut test.

"I want to keep Razzak out from the eleven as left-armers Rafique and Saqib would complete their 10-over quota," Islam went on.

The former player said, "Sharif is a genuine all-rounder and the best first-changed bowler though he sat out for a long period. The team would be benefited by his batting."

The former national cricketer has selected 15 cricketers for the World Cup. They are Shahriar Nafees, Javed Omar, Aftab Ahmed, Saqib Al Hasan, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Ashraful, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Mohammad Sharif, Mashrafee Bin Mortaza, Shahadat Hossain, Rajin Saleh, Syed Rasel, Abdur Razzak and Tushar Imran.

His playing eleven is comprised of Shahriar Nafees, Javed Omar, Aftab Ahmed, Saqib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Habibul Bashar, Khaled Mashud, Mashrafee Bin Mortaza, Mohammad Sharif/Abdur Razzak, Mohammad Rafique and Shahadat Hossain.

bdnews24.com/mp/ar/ja/1917 hrs



I like This team very much and bulbul got my 100% support. he is right on the money on every thing. We should take an experience team.
I like his comment about Habibuls position. I hope he listens to him and chg his pos from 5 to 6.