Yeasin the lone newcomer

The Bangladesh Cricket Board yesterday announced a 31-man preliminary squad that will take part in the national training camp from May 13 to prepare for the full tour of West Indies in July-August. 19-year-old pacer Yeasin Arafat, who impressed in the Dhaka Premier League (DPL) for Gazi Group and in the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) for North Zone, was the only first-time entrant into the national picture.

Interestingly, there is supposed to be a three-T20I away series against Afghanistan before the Caribbean tour, but the BCB in its press release announcing the squad mentioned only the tour of West Indies.

BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury had said on May 3 that the dates for the Afghanistan series, tentatively scheduled to be held in the Indian city of Dehradun, would be finalised in the 'next two-three days'. Till now it has widely been thought that the series is likely to take place in the first week of June, but the Afghanistan Cricket Board is yet to officially announce dates for what will count as their home series.

Although the preliminary list rarely causes controversy because of the large number of cricketers named, yesterday's release had one notable omission in young pace-bowling all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin, who was part of the squad for the recent T20I triangular in Sri Lanka. It is a surprising decision because his most recent cricketing statement was a maiden first-class hundred in the last round of the BCL for East Zone.

"It's not as if he is not part of our thinking; we will include him in the High Performance team, which is part of BCB's programme," said chief selector Minhajul Abedin over phone yesterday. "If needed, we can call him up to the squad like we did with [Mehedi Hasan] Miraz when we included him in the England series."

Mehedi was called up from the HP squad for the two-Test series against England in 2016 but he was a debutant. Saifuddin has already played six T20Is and three ODIs for the national team. Minhajul had said last month that two kinds of players would be considered for the HP and A teams -- those who can make the step up to the top flight in a couple of years and those who can be immediate replacements.

In the current scenario, Saifuddin seems to be in neither camp – he is already a national player and so is not in the first group, while having been dropped from the preliminary squad he can hardly be considered an immediate replacement option.

The picture was altogether much brighter for Yeasin, a bowler full of promise who took eight wickets against Abahani in a DPL match this season and also bagged seven wickets against East Zone in the fifth round of the BCL.

"Yeasin Arafat is a bright prospect; he is a tall bowler and has good pace," Minhajul said. "He has impressed in the DPL against Abahani and has been included keeping his longer-version potential in mind. "