Anamul, Nasir to miss Zimbabwe Test

Anamul Haque and Nasir Hossain will be unavailable for the first Test against Zimbabwe, after they were both picked in a BCB XI side that will take part in the Acharya Memorial Trophy in Kolkata from October 25 to celebrate 150 years of the Eden Gardens. Both players were part of Bangladesh's Test squad last month against West Indies.

Bangladesh will also be without the services of Elias Sunny, who too was selected in the BCB XI squad that will take on teams from Mumbai, Bangalore and the hosts Kolkata.

Anamul has been made captain of the team, with Naeem Islam appointed his deputy. The make-up of the BCB XI squad means that the rest of the players will be kept in consideration for the first Test which also begins on October 25, at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

Nasir is one of several Bangladesh players whose poor form this year has been under the scanner. The West Indies tour was seen as crucial for the likes of him, Mahmudullah, Shamsur Rahman, Imrul Kayes and even Tamim Iqbal. While Mahmudullah and Tamim have done well and Shamsur Rahman and Imrul Kayes now remain in contention for the first Test match, the axe has fallen on Nasir and Anamul, who had started the West Indies tour with an ODI century.

But since then, Anamul only managed scores of 7, 0, 19*, 15, 9 and 0 in the remaining games. Overall, he averages 9.12 in Test cricket. Nasir, on the other hand, is suffering his first bad season after making his debut in 2011. He averages 14.14 in four Tests this year, having made just 99 runs.

This leaves the door slightly open for the likes of Shamsur, Imrul and Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury to be retained in the Test squad. Marshall Ayub, having not been named in the BCB XI, can also be considered to be competing for one spot. Among the bowlers, seamer Shahadat Hossain and legspinner Jubair Hossain are likely to be fighting for a single spot.

BCB XI squad: Anamul Haque (capt) , Liton Kumar Das, Mohammad Mithun, Sabbir Rahman, Soumya Sarker, Nasir Hossain, Naeem Islam, Nurul Hasan (wk), Arafat Sunny, Elias Sunny, Mohammad Shahid, Abul Hasan, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Taskin Ahmed, Muktar Ali