Experiment goes on

The current series against Zimbabwe has already been dubbed a series for experimentation and in line with that thinking the Minhajul Abedin-led selection panel included four uncapped players for the first Test.  Ariful Haque, Mohammad Mithun, Khaled Ahmed and Nazmul Islam were the fresh faces in the 15-member squad as axes fell on Kamrul Islam, Rubel Hossain and Nurul Hasan from the last Test squad for the West Indies tour while Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan are still injured. Refreshingly, the selectors put their focus on domestic performances in recent times when introducing new faces or considering old ones, but that was not the case for Tushar Imran, who has been achieving one domestic batting milestone after another. Mahmudullah Riyad will lead the team in the absence of Shakib, who has yet to recover from his finger injury. Tamim is recovering from a left knuckle fracture sustained during the first match of the Asia Cup in September in Dubai. Minhajul told reporters yesterday that they picked the best possible side and also explained the reasoning behind picking the new faces. The following is his explanation about the call-ups of Ariful, Mithun, Khaled and Nazmul.