Agency :
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Chief Selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu revealed why Mohammad Saifuddin was axed from the upcoming T20 World Cup (WC) squad.
Despite taking eight wickets in four matches against Zimbabwe in the recent Zimbabwe series, he was the only player omitted from the provisional squad which made Tanzim Hasan’s route easier to the final team.
The BCB Selector said that Saifuddin was initially in the provisional squad for the T20 World Cup submitted to the ICC on April 30. However, he has been removed from the team due to his unimpressive performance in the death overs during the Zimbabwe series.
“Saifuddin was in our minds.
We had formed a team in light of the BPL, and we didn’t differ a lot from that squad.
Saifuddin is the only player from the squad we had submitted on the 30th who didn’t make it in the final cut. In his place, Tanzim Sakib came in,” said Lipu during the press conference.
Lipu mentioned that Saifuddin’s lack of bowling yorkers effectively in the final overs, leading to conceding runs at the end of the match against Zimbabwe, resulted in him being dropped from the team.
“Although he didn’t get a lot of chances to bat, the reason why we were high on Saifuddin was because of his ability to bowl yorkers in the death overs. We didn’t see much of that.
He still has a lot of room for improvement. We observed a disparity between his performances in domestic cricket and international cricket,” he said.
“Tanzim was a bit ahead of Saifuddin. We have seen Tanzim in the Sri Lanka series.
His dedication, his determination to deliver on the field put him slightly ahead of Saifuddin,” he added.