Hasan Murad and Shahadat Hossain, two new players to the Bangladesh national team, had good games in the final round of the National Cricket League (NCL), which ended on Tuesday. Other members of the Test group, on the other hand, had bad games.
A total of 10 players out of the 15-member Bangladesh squad for the forthcoming two-Test series against New Zealand played in the final round of the NCL, with Chattogram Division’s Murad and Shahadat standing out.
In their second-tier match against Rajshahi in Chattogram on Monday, Murad, a left-arm spinner, took 9 wickets and Shahadat got 87 in the first game. The hosts won the tie. With 36 wickets in six games, Nayeem Hasan was named the tournament’s best player. He took five wickets.
Najmul Hossain Shanto will lead the Tigers in the New Zealand Tests while Shakib Al Hasan is out with an injury. He started both of his games for Rajshahi. He got 31 and 20, but he couldn’t make the most of the starts.
In Rajshahi’s first game, veteran Mushfiqur Rahim was out for a duck, and he could only make 16 runs before being bowled by Murad.
Sadman Islam, Zakir Hasan, Nurul Hasan Sohan, and Mahmudul Hasan all had surprise runs with the bat for their teams, and Hasan Mahmud took five wickets for Chattogram.
The Test team went to Sylhet last night in preparation for the first Test against New Zealand, which starts on November 28.
Returning to the action from Tuesday, NCL winners Dhaka and Dhaka Metro played to a draw in Cox’s Bazar yesterday, despite heavy rain. Dhaka won the title in the previous round.
Nasum Ahmed took six wickets, which helped Sylhet Division beat Rangpur Division by 201 runs in the first-tier match in Bogura.
Rangpur ended in fourth place and was dropped from the first level. The champions of the second level, Chattogram, will take their place.