Selectors are currently passing a busy time over forming separate squads ahead of the national team's and its understudy team's jam-packed schedule in May with the main concern being picking the right player for the right team.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday confirmed that the national team will play two T20Is against UAE in Sharjah on May 17 and 19 respectively before heading to Pakistan for a five-match T20I series, scheduled to start in Faisalabad on May 25.

But in the same month, both Bangladesh 'A' and Emerging Team will play separate series at home.

New Zealand 'A' team arrived in Bangladesh yesterday for three one-dayers and two four-day matches against their Bangladeshi counterparts, scheduled on May 5-24 in Sylhet and Mirpur.

Meanwhile, South Africa Emerging Team is scheduled to arrive on May 7, and will play three one-dayers in Rajshahi on May 12-16 and two four-day matches in Chattogram and Mirpur between May 20-30 against Bangladesh Emerging Team.

The selectors have already named a 15-member Emerging Team squad, led by Akbar Ali alongside youngsters like Jishan Alam, Rakibul Hasan and Ripon Mondol, and the squad for the first two one-dayers of the 'A' team's series which includes the likes of Parvez Hossain Emon, Shamim Hossain and Shoriful Islam.

Chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu admitted the challenge of forming three separate squads concurrently, and told The Daily Star, "There is a matter of fine tuning. We need to name a squad for the last one-dayer [against New Zealand A]. Then we need to take some players from there for the national team's T20I assignment. We also need to form a four-day squad for the red-ball series as well."

It is learnt that pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who was initially named in the 'A' team's squad, will be rested instead as the BCB wants to be extra cautious with him following Taskin Ahmed's injury and Nahid Rana's ongoing stint at the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

"The team management agreed to give Mustafizur a rest as he has already played four games in the DPL after coming back from rehab. He will be playing T20Is against UAE and Pakistan and we then also have a full-fledged white-ball series against Sri Lanka. We have picked Khaled [Ahmed] in Mustafizur's place," Lipu said.

The hectic cricket schedule increases the risk of players getting injured and as many of the national team cricketers play across all three formats, the chief selector felt an injury would make their job much more difficult.

"It's good if a player plays in all three formats, but it's also risky. When he is out of form or gets injured, we need to find three players to replace him. If one of my confirmed players gets injured in between, we need to find three players to replace him in the Sri Lanka series. Then the selection becomes very difficult."

The chief selector also said that in case of filing up a vacuum in the side, they would prefer picking someone with experience of playing international cricket.

"We have some players. But it's not like everyone is ready… When we find a vacuum in the team, we want to keep some players ready who also have experience of playing in international cricket."