Bangladesh name 18-man squad

Mashrafe Mortaza will be Bangladesh's key pace bowler against Australia © AFP

Bangladesh have named an 18-man training squad to prepare for their series against Australia. The bulk of the party consists of the players who completed a 4-0 win over Kenya in the recent one-day series.

The only notable omissions are Tushar Imran, the middle-order batsman, and Nazmul Hossain, the right-arm seamer, who have been involved in the recent series against Sri Lanka A.

Faruque Ahmed, the chief selector, told the Daily Star: "They were out of the list only because of their commitments with the A side to play three one-dayers. Actually it is completely an unchanged squad but this time I can assure you that we will be flexible. We can call one or two players out of the list if we feel the need to do so at any time during the tour."

Mushfiqur Rahim is retained in the squad after playing in the second Test against Sri Lanka and the selectors are confident is a important role to play in Bangladesh's future. "He might have failed against Sri Lanka but we still believe that he has the potential to serve the country in the longer-version game," explained Faruque. "We are trying to find a solid combination - that's why we went for the same team.

"True we were not fully successful against Sri Lanka in the home series but there were many positives. I think our one-day team has taken a shape following our performances in the last couple of months but we still have to work hard for the longer-version."

Habibul Bashar, the captain, said he was pleased to have an unchanged squad after the promising performances Bangladesh and produced in recent months. Prior to their win over Kenya they had showed signs of improvement against Sri Lanka, winning a one-day international at Bogra.

"I think there is hardly any reason to bring changes in the team or call-up new players because we have been playing good cricket for the last few months," said Bashar. "Yes, once again I want to say that it would have been nice if we had a very good off-spinner in the squad but there is no one to fill this desire."

Squad Habibul Bashar (capt), Khaled Mashud (wk), Nafees Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Javed Omar, Rajin Saleh, Aftab Ahmed, Shahriar Nafees, Alok Kapali, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammed Rafique, Manjarul Islam Rana, Mashrafe Bin Mortuza, Tapash Baisya, Enamul Haque, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel, Shahadat Hossain.