Rhodes seeks bench strength

Bangladesh's new head coach Steve Rhodes has the 2019 World Cup in his sights as he is chalking out plans with cricket's showpiece event in England in mind. The Englishman had a meeting with chief selector Minhajul Abedin Nannu at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday, where he expressed the need to create a group of reserve players to lend flexibility to the team combination in the upcoming assignments.

"I had a meeting with the head coach today [Friday] and the main thing Rhodes is looking for is long-term planning until the next World Cup in 2019. He wanted to know about the young players in the High Performace Squad and the A team -- pacers, spinners, batsmen and all-rounders. Rhodes will be present from the first day of the training camp," Minhajul told reporters yesterday.

According to Minhajul, the 54-year-old is eager to create a group of backup players to strengthen the base of the pipeline and asked for a 30-member preliminary squad for the upcoming Asia Cup where he will observe the up-and-coming players currently not in the national team.

"The preparation camp for the Asia Cup [Bangladesh's next assignment from September 15 in the UAE] will start from August 27, for which we will announce the preliminary squad within next week. He [Rhodes] wanted to have a look  at some new players and also asked for well-built and tall fast bowlers in the squad, keeping the Tigers' upcoming Test series in mind," he said.

Bangladesh have home Test series against Zimbabwe and West Indies to close out the year, before a full tour of New Zealand in early 2019.

The Bangladesh head coach returned with the side on Thursday, when he met with Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan and discussed first assignment in the West Indies along with strategies for upcoming series.

Hassan said after the meeting that the board  will continue the policy of making the head coach a selection committee member and Rhodes's meeting with the chief selector yesterday was a reflection of that.