Only one selection that I think questionable is Hasanuzzaman. He was averaging around 20 last 2/3 years, suddenly he picked it up this year. He may be now mature enough to handle spinners well, coming to bat at 6, but I have serious doubt how he will fare against fast bowlers on seaming pitches.
Shamsur Rahman would be a better choice in his place as Shamsu did pretty well in u/19's recent tour of Australia. Also, he toured England last year where he had scores of 68 and 75 against England u/19. In the Test series against the same opponent, he had the best batting average of the team, 41.66, where Nazimuddin averaged 34.66, Aftab 34, and Mushfiqur Rahim 31.75.
Concerning Alamgir, Shanto, and Manju, we all know that they are not coming back to the national team, it would be wasteful of selectors to send them to England. At this point, Munir or Talha may be worse than above three mentioned, but both of them have potentials to improve.
Also, sending Farhad Reza or Golam Rahman to England would be a gamble as none of them have the experience of playing on seaming pitches or facing quality fast bowlers. At this point, selectors really can't afford to take anymore risk.
About Nabil Samad, Razzak did lot better than him in practice matches to kick him out of consideration.
Lastly, another of my favourite youngsters going to miss this tour is Sakib Al Hasan. This 16 year old alrounder, I believe, is good, or, at least, consistent enough to push Alok Kapali out of the team, but selectors went for Alok's leg break variation instead of having another SLA in the team.
Edited on, June 13, 2005, 11:40 PM GMT, by TheWatcher.
Edited on, June 14, 2005, 11:01 AM GMT, by TheWatcher.
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