The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) wants clarity over the future plans of Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal.

Injury has ruled Shakib out of the Australia game at the World Cup and the two Tests against New Zealand, which will start in Sylhet on November 28 and in Dhaka on December 6.

"Shakib is unavailable [for the NZ series] due to injury. He has a plan and we need to be clear about it in terms of his leadership roles and what formats they [Shakib and Tamim] want to go ahead with," a BCB official told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.

New Zealand Cricket has already announced a spin-heavy squad for the two Tests. BCB's Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said that the home team is likely to be announced around November 20.

Tamim has communicated to the board that he would not be available for the Tests.

"Tamim informed us that he has not been training for the last one month. Since he has not worked out or done any preparations, he will not be available in the series. He will let us know about his next steps later," cricket operations chairman Jalal Yunus told The Daily Star yesterday.

Last year, Liton Das was made Shakib's Test deputy and the batter led the team in the lone Test against Afghanistan in June last year.

The BCB, however, is not very happy with Liton at the moment, with one board director saying that Liton's wavering 'concentration' both on and off the field has been a concern for the BCB.

"We aren't negative about Liton but for some reason he has lost a bit of focus on everything," a BCB official close to the development said.

Apart from Liton, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mehedi Miraz are the likely candidates for Test captaincy in the New Zealand series at the moment, however, Shanto lean form is a concern for the BCB. The BCB is likely to discuss the issue of captaincy in its next board meeting.