Nasir could do well: Faruque

With neither the coach nor the captain made available to the media yesterday, it is still uncertain whether the Tigers will make any changes to the playing eleven in their second ODI against England, a must-win encounter, today.

However, there is no doubt that the calls for a change in the team have grown louder since Bangladesh's defeat in the first ODI. Both Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon and team manager Khaled Mahmud were asked whether the Tigers would tweak their squad a bit ahead of their second ODI at the team hotel yesterday. Neither of them indicated anything certain.

While none of the BCB officials were ready to express their opinion, former chief selector Faruque Ahmed, while speaking to The Daily Star yesterday, opined that it would not be an illogical move to include both Nasir and Al-Amin Hossain in the second ODI.

"It's always easy to speak after the match is over, but had you asked me this question before the first ODI, I would have said the same thing. I feel that it's important to judge the opponent's strengths and England have very good left-arm batsmen. You need a good off-spinner and Nasir has done well for Bangladesh in the last two years," said Faruque.

"If you look at his bowling record, he has bowled his full quota of overs in almost every game in the last couple of years," he added.

Faruque was pointing to the fact that Nasir has been Bangladesh's second highest wicket-taker amongst spinners since 2015. He also boasts the best economy rate, 4.33, in the side over the past two years. In terms of bowling average as well, he has been in the top five amongst all the bowlers with an average of 26.62.

"He is also a kind of player who can provide stability in the tail. I am not saying that Mosharraf Hossain is a bad bowler, but I think on the whole, Nasir's inclusion in the side could be justified," said Faruque about the player who had a batting average above 70 in the Dhaka Premier League.

Furthermore he described Al-Amin Hossain as a specialist against left-arm batsmen and said that it would be logical to try him out against England.

With regards to the performance of the hosts in the first ODI, Faruque said that Bangladesh had more gains than losses and that the end result did not necessarily depict the true picture of the game.