Bangladesh call up uncapped Shahriar for Afghanistan T20s

Bangladesh on Tuesday included uncapped opening batsman Munim Shahriar in their 14-man Twenty20 squad for a two-match series against Afghanistan next month.

Shahriar, 23, made 178 runs in six matches at a strike rate of 152 for Barishal in the recently-concluded Bangladesh Premier League T20 tournament.

Test batsman Yasir Ali, yet to make his white-ball debut, has been included. Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan all return after missing Bangladesh’s last Twenty20 series against Pakistan in November.

Opener Najmaul Hossain and wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan were dropped.

Afghanistan will play three one-day internationals against Bangladesh starting on Wednesday in Chattogram before the Twenty20 in Mirpur on March 3 and 5.

Bangladesh: Mahmudullah Riyad (capt), Liton Das, Munim Shahriar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Yasir Ali, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Shohidul Islam, Mohammad Naim.