Bangladesh join India and Pakistan in announcing Asia Cup squad
Bangladesh have announced their 15-man squad for the Asia Cup, with Mohammad Ashraful earning a recall to the ODI line-up after a successful World Twenty20 campaign.
Ashraful (pictured) scored at an average of 32.50 in the Caribbean tournament, and made his side’s highest score of the competition with an innings of 65 from 49 deliveries against Pakistan in Bangladesh’s opening group stage match.
The 25-year-old now gets another chance to prove himself in the 50-over format, after missing out on selection for Bangladesh’s home ODI series against England earlier this year.
India and Pakistan had previously announced their Asia Cup squads, with Pakistan recalling 34-year-old Shoaib Akhtar for the competition along with Shoaib Malik, who was earlier in 2010 banned from playing for cricket for a year by the PCB, but has recently had that decision overturned by an arbitrator.
Pakistan will begin their campaign against Bangladesh in the opening match of the tournament on June 15th.
India, meanwhile, will enter the tournament without Sachin Tendulkar, who has been rested on request, while Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan have paid the price for poor form and have been axed from the squad.
Captain MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag are among those to return to the India squad after missing the recently concluded tri-series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, where a second-string India were twice defeated by their African hosts.
The squads are:
Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Jahurul Islam, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Suhrawadi Shuvo.
Pakistan: Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Shahzaib Hasan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Amin, Asad Shafiq.
India: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda, R. Ashwin, Saurabh Tiwary.
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