Saifuddin only player axed from provisional World Cup squad: Lipu

Chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu revealed that Mohammad Saifuddin was part of the provisional squad for the T20 World Cup they had submitted to the ICC on April 30 but has been dropped from the team after failing to impress in the death overs in the recently-concluded Zimbabwe series.

Saifuddin, who took eight wickets in the four matches against Zimbabwe at an economy rate of 9.31, was the only player to be cut from the provisional squad and has been replaced by Tanzim Sakib, said Lipu.

"He [Saifuddin] was in our minds. We had formed a team in light of the BPL, and we didn't deviate a lot from that squad. Saifuddin is the only player from the squad we had submitted on the 30th who didn't make it in the final cut. In his place, Tanzim Sakib came in," the former Bangladesh captain told the reporters in the press conference after announcing the Two World Cup team today in Mirpur.

Lipu said that Saifuddin's failure to land his yorkers in the final overs and going for runs at the death against Zimbabwe in some of the matches cost him his place in the side.

"Although he didn't get a lot of chances to bat, the reason why we were high on Saifuddin was because of his ability to bowl yorkers in the death overs. We didn't see much of that.

"He still has a lot of room for improvement. We observed a disparity between his performances in domestic cricket and international cricket."

The chief selector said they were impressed with Tanzim's dedication to the team, which helped earn a ticket to the World Cup.

"We have seen Tanzim in the Sri Lanka series. His dedication, his determination to deliver on the field put him ahead in consideration."

The selectors named a 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup with Najmul Hossain Shanto as captain and Taskin Ahmed as his deputy.