Bangladesh have announced their ICC T20 World Cup squad today (May 14). All-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin was left out of the squad at the last moments, Bangladesh chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lip revealed after the team announcement.

The deadline for submitting the World Cup team to the ICC was May 1. In between, BCB also sends a team. But ultimately the selection panel was forced to make a change due to the poor performance of Mohammad Saifuddin in the recently-concluded Zimbabwe series. And it is Tanzim Hasan Sakib who got the place in the squad in place of Mohammad Saifuddin.

The selectors were very disappointed with Saifuddin's performance. Though Saifuddin took 8 wickets in the 4 matches in the Zimbabwe series, the economy rate was so high- 9.31. Specially in the last T20I of the series, in which Bangladesh lost the match by 8 wickets, Saifuddin conceded 55 runs in 4 overs. The selectors are not happy with Saifuddin’s dead-over bowling for which he was selected in the team.

Saifuddin came into the team after 18 months after showing great performances in Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and Dhaka Premier League (DPL). Lipu also added that they made the team see BPL’s performance but he also reminded that international cricket is different than BPL, where Saifuddin failed.

Lipu said, “We submitted a team on 30^th [April] on a different context. We had two roads open. One is to select the team with those who are fit. Another was to wait for the information of the injured players. The case of Saifuddin, how he returned to international cricket. We needed to analyze his performance. We kept Saifuddin in the team from a place of trust. Observing him, we felt that Tanzim Sakib was little ahead in the place of our hope, the place of trust. Saifuddin is not included in the team because of this, but he was very close.”

“The yorkers at the death overs were less seen in Saifuddin’s bowling. There is much more to improve. I have noticed a difference in international cricket with domestic tournaments. Otherwise, we prepared the team thinking according to the performance of BPL. We haven't deviated much from that group. Saifuddin is the only player not to make it to the World Cup from the 30^th’s [April] squad. Only Saifuddin has been replaced by Tanzim Sakib.”