[al Furqaan]

Yes, ladies and gents, the core of Bangladesh cricket is back after more than a year. Some returning from injury, others from suspect action. Here is the "core" of our team; the 18 best players (test and ODI) who have some experience at the top level.

1. Mashrafee bin Mortaza (RFM)
2. Talha Jubair (RMF)
3. Abdur Razzaq (SLA)
4. Nafis Iqbal (RHB)
5. Javed Omar (RHB)
6. Mohammad Ashraful (RHB)
7. Habibul Bashar (RHB)
8. Rajin Saleh (RHB)
9. Khaled Mashud (RHB, WK)
10. Manjural Islam Rana (SLA, LHB)
11. Mohammad Rafique (SLA, LHB)
12. Mushfiqur Rahman (RMF, RHB)
13. Aftab Ahmed (RHB, RM)
14. Nazmul Hossain (RMF)
15. Tapash Baisya (RFM)
16. Al Shahriar Rokon (RHB)
17. Alok Kapali (RHB)
18. Enamul Haque Jr. (SLA)

As you can see, we could use some more left handed batsmen, and some off-spinners. Left arm quicks also could be on order. Here is what the depth chart would look like for ODIs:

1. Javed
2. Nafis
3 Bashar/ Aftab
4. Aftab/ Saleh
5. Ashraful/ Rokon
6. Rana/ Mushfiq/ Alok
7. Mashud
8. Rafique/ Enamul
9. Razzaq
10. Tapash/ Nazmul/ Talha
11. Mashrafee/ Mushfiq/ Talha

And for tests:

1. Javed
2. Nafis
3. Bashar/ Aftab
4. Saleh/ Aftab
5. Ashraful/ Aftab/ Rokon
6. Rana/ Mushfiq/ Alok
7. Mashud
8. Rafique/ Enamul
9. Razzaq
10. Tapash/ Nazmul/ Talha
11. Mashrafee/ Mushfiq/ Talha

Using the depth chart, our selectors should use the pacers sparingly...say for every 2 matches masri plays, he should sit out one for talha or mushfiq. same with talha since he is also injury prone. lets try enamul in ODIs ahead of rafique who is not so good in the shorter games. this core 18 on paper seems to be a challenging squad, however all hinges on the batsmen. if they go down, so do the other players.

Notes

*** I left out Hannan Sarkar as he is not in the pre-lim squad for the India series, and will not be back in the near future. However, I believe he will soon make this core one of 19 players.
*** Kapali is in since he seems to get more chances than Hannan.
*** Youngsters like Shahadat Hossain Rajib, Dhiman Ghosh, and others should expand the core even further, although as it is, the core is quite solid at 18.