Mahidul earns maiden ODI call-up for West Indies series

Middle-order batter Mahidul Islam Ankon earned maiden ODI call-up as the Bangladesh Cricket Board announced a 16-member squad for the three-match ODI series against the West Indies. Opener Naim Sheikh and pacer Nahid Rana, who were part of the recently concluded ODI series against Afghanistan, failed to retain their place in squad that marked the return of opener Soumya Sarkar in the 50-over format.

Soumya last played in Champions Trophy in February. Cricbuzz earlier reported that Litton is unlikely to make it to the ODIs due to the side strain injury that he sustained in Asia Cup and after getting the scan report , the team management decided to bench him as they decided not to take any risk with their T20I skipper. The three ODIs are scheduled at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium respectively on 18, 21 and 23.

Bangladesh squad:Mehidy Hassan Miraz (c), Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Soumya Sarker, Mohammed Saif Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, Mahidul Islam Anton, Jaker Ali, Shamim Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Tanvir Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Hasan Mahmud

"Recently, especially in white-ball cricket, in T20s, we have had some remarkable successes. But our recent performance against Afghanistan has absolutely blurred those recent successes," Gazi Ashraf Hossain, Bangladesh's chief selector, said.

"Such a performance - I think none of us who watch cricket, who are involved with cricket, or even those who play - expected that such a result could happen. However, it's true that our weaknesses have been completely exposed, especially our batting weaknesses have come out clearly. We definitely have to overcome those as quickly as possible."

However, he was hopeful that playing in home conditions would allow his team to put up a stronger fight against West Indies.

"However, our opponent now is the West Indies. We are not playing on that pitch in Abu Dhabi. We are playing at our home ground, on the Mirpur wicket. And we are not facing spinners like Rashid or other high-quality spinners. That's a bit of a relief for us. And the pain the players are carrying now - especially because of such a defeat, where we occupied the pitch for so little time, couldn't regularly bat for 50 overs, and against Afghanistan, we couldn't even properly play half of the quota - that's something we really need to recover from," he said.

"Carrying that pain inside is extremely difficult for a player, and the players are completely overwhelmed by physical and mental exhaustion - there is no doubt about that. However, returning to the field so quickly is as challenging as it is necessary - coming back from such a mindset, from such a shattered state. At the same time, I believe that by returning quickly to playing good cricket and finding success, we can recover from the shame we faced against Afghanistan - especially in batting - and bring ourselves back to a place of success.

And you have seen this team. In this team, from the one that played against Afghanistan, we have not included Nahid Rana among the five seamers.

Explaining the decision of bringing back Soumya Sarkar into the side, he added, "He is a very experienced player, having played around 80 ODIs and been part of the team for about 10 years. And towards the end of last year, in November, he had considerable success with the bat against the same West Indies side we are now facing. Since Litton Das is not in the team - as you all know - we have brought in Soumya Sarkar as an experienced replacement.

Another change has been the inclusion of Mahidul Islam Ankon "The team's middle order has suffered a lot; almost everyone, you could say, has been struggling with a lack of runs," he explained. "So, in that position, we have brought in Mahidul Islam Ankon. Bangladesh will also play in the next ODI World Cup in 2027, and to expand the pool of potential players for that tournament, Mahidul Islam Ankon's name surely stands out among the promising and competent ones. By including him, we have increased the team's depth, giving the team management and captain more options. It will also allow us to give a short break to one or two players who have not been performing well in batting.

"That opportunity has been created by bringing in Ankon. After this, we have a T20 series against the West Indies. So, we haven't excluded any of our main middle-order batsmen from the setup. Everyone will stay with the team in training for the ODIs. For that reason, we have just added one player to the middle order without removing anyone, and the squad has been kept at 16 members."