The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has called up young revelations Abu Haider Rony and Nurul Hasan for the T20 International series against Zimbabwe.
The board announced a 14-man squad for the first two matches of the series on Tuesday, reports bdnews24.com.
The youngsters were selected on the back of some fine performances in Bangladesh Premier League last month.
Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury, who is yet to play an international T20 match, is in the squad as well.
BCB made five changes to the squad that played T20Is against Zimbabwe in November last year.
The selectors have left out Nasir Hossain, Litton Kumer Das, Jubair Hossain, Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Anamul Haque for the first two matches of the four-match series.
Left-handed opener Soumya Sarkar returned to the fold after recovering from an injury while Shakib Al Hasan, too, made his way back after spending some time with his family.
The inclusion of left-arm seamer Rony, who grabbed 21 wickets in the BPL, was somewhat certain but the addition of wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul came as a surprise.
Bangladesh have been in search of a batsman to play at No. 7 in T20s for some time. The team management is likely to thrust Nurul into the role with the World T20 coming a couple of months later.
Shuvagata's inclusion, however, was questionable. Although he showed accuracy with the ball, he took just five wickets and scored 94 runs in nine innings in the BPL.
But the selectors brought his ability to play shots early in his innings into consideration. The 29-year old is also adept at dealing with spin.
Zimbabwe will reach Bangladesh on January 11. The matches are scheduled to be played on January 15, 17, 20 and 22 in Khulna.
Squad:
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (captain), Shakib Al Hasan (vice captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Arafat Sunny, Quazi Nurul Hasan, Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Haider Rony, Al-Amin Hossain.
