Each team's squad for the ODI World Cup will consist of 15 members. The number of members in the Asia Cup is 2 more, with each squad having a total of 17 members. But Mahmudullah Riyad, Soumya Sarkar did not have a place in that squad. However, not only in the 17-member team, Riyad-Soumya did not have a place in the first 20-member Bangladesh team of the Asia Cup. 

Along with the 17 members of the main squad who are going to the Asia Cup as standby cricketers, Riyad is not named. Not even Soumya. Taijul Islam, who was left out of the original squad, got a place. He is accompanied by Saif Hassan and young pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) published the list of standby cricketers in a press release after announcing the team on Saturday (August 12) morning.

Although Riyad and Soumya were not in the main team, many thought that they could be kept with the team as a standby. The chief selector of the national team, Minhajul Abedin Nannu, explained that why Riyad was not included in the team. Nannu said, “There was a lot of discussion regarding Riyad initially. Then after much discussion, the team management gave us a plan. The plan was how we would play against a specific country. Riyad was excluded from that thought. We certainly liked the management's plan.”

Meanwhile, Soumya was not in consideration for the Asia Cup team. But he was in the Asia Cup camp. Nannu added, “Soumya has enough experience in international cricket. We saw him in the Emerging Asia Cup, as his performance in domestic cricket wasn’t good enough. We justified him if he would come back or not but he was not in our discussion for the Asia Cup team.”