Cool & Cool Cup Is Ashraful dropped?

Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim leaves the hotel in Chittagong as the team left the port city for Dhaka yesterday ahead of the second Test against Pakistan due to start in Mirpur on Saturday.

Mohammad Ashraful is going to face the music again for his poor batting in the first Test against Pakistan in Chittagong. The national selectors have decided on the 14-member squad without Ashraful for the second and final Test to be held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur from December 17.

“We submitted the team to the board today because we have only two days in hand for practice before the second Test match,” said chief selector Akram Khan. But Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) didn't release the list yesterday despite the fact that training will start from this morning, just 48 hours before the Test.

The chief selector is apparently disturbed by the fact that the team was not announced although the practice is scheduled in the morning.

It is however feared that there will be last minute changes from the high-ups. BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal was in Singapore and is scheduled to return home today along with his Pakistan counterpart Zaka Ashraf.

It is also all but confirmed that pacer Rubel Hossain will miss the second Test due to a shoulder injury while Shahadat Hossain is likely to keep his place despite his poor effort in the first Test in the port city which Bangladesh lost by an innings and 184 runs. Shafiul Islam will come in place of Rubel, but the real debate has centred on Ashraful's fate during yesterday's selection meeting.

The selectors, coach Stuart Law and captain Mushfiqur Rahim earlier met the BCB's cricket operations committee to discuss the team's performance in the ongoing series where they stressed on bringing confidence back in the players. Bangladesh's batting was pathetic in the first Test and Ashraful made the selectors look foolish again by scoring just one run in the first innings and a three-ball duck in the second.

The recall of Ashraful for the Test series surprised many as the right-hander was dropped for the Twenty20 and one-day series against Pakistan for being out of form and he was supposed to be out of the team for at least a year.

Now it would be really funny if the axe fell on the same man.

PROBABLE SQUAD
Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Mahmudullah (vice-captain), Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Shakib Al Hasan, Naeem Islam, Nasir Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Elias Sunny, Shahadat Hossain, Sohrawardi Shuvo, Robiul Islam, Nazimuddin.