Story Indian Domestic Tournament - DUleep Trophy 2005 - 06

[Bala]

Bangladesh squad named

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have announced a full strength squad for the Duleep Trophy. Habibul Bashar will skipper the team with young talent Mohammed Ashraful will act his deputy.

The squad:

• Habibul Bashar (C)
• Javed Omar
• Shariar Nafees
• Khaled Mashud
• Tushar Imran
• Masrafe Mortaza
• Tapash Baisya
• Mohd. Rafique
• Mushfiqur Rahim
• Mushfiqur Rahman
• Rajin Saleh
• Nafis Iqbal
• Enamul Haque Jr.
• Khaled Mahmud
• Shahadat Hossain
• Mohammad Ashraful
• Talha Jubair
• Nazmul Hossain
• Manjural Islam Rana

The Bangladesh team have come to India fully prepared as they are accompanied by their coach Dav Whatmore and their motion study expert Rupert Malcolm.

 

[Bala]

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5865/bashar9pb.png
The Bangladeshi captain Habibul Bashar spoke to the media on arrival at New Delhi for their impending opener against one of the power houses ? North Zone.

?Obviously, it will be a tough test for us, but we are a confident lot as we showed against Australia and England.?

On the prospects of running into Sehwag and Co, he said

?It will be a great challenge to bowl to Sehwag on his home ground. Hopefully we will do well?.

When quizzed about facing Asish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh

?Obviously, they are good bowlers and we have played against them already. We have worked with Dav Whatmore to look into more of details of their bowling. We are ready?.

Dav Whatmore, the coach of Bangladesh was interviewed later

?Yeah, it is indeed a tough tour with the lads running into the cream of Indian cricket. But we are prepared and we showed our mental strength against top quality sides.?

Whatmore has singled out young talent Mohammad Ashraful for a special praise

?Who wouldn?t have a player like this fella in their team. He gives a damn to the bowler and can hit some real huge sixes?

Ashraful spoke to Anand Verma of NDTV on this tour. ?We have come here prepared for the series. Unlike last year, we have a strong squad and nobody is guaranteed a place in the team.? Speaking about his targets, ?I personally would like to score atleast 500 runs in the potential 10 innings available. Though I will settle even for a duck, if Bangladesh win the match?.



Andy Roberts, the pace bowling coach for Bangladesh will be joining the team 5 days before the match against North Zone.

 

[Bala]

Sachin Tendulkar returns from injury to captain West Zone

Sachin Tendulkar will be playing his first competitive match in almost 12 months after being laid low by a spate of injuries ranging from Tennis Elbow to a fracture in his foot.

• Sachin Tendulkar, Mumbai & Yorkshire
• Ajit Agarkar, Mumbai
• Rajesh Pawar, Mumbai
• Wasim Jaffer, Mumbai
• Ramesh Powar, Mumbai
• Vinit Indulkar, Mumbai
• Satyajit Parab, Baroda
• Sidharth Trivedi, Maharashtra
• Zaheer Khan, Baroda
• Rakesh Patel, Baroda
• Kiran Powar, Baroda
• Niraj Patel, Gujarat
• Parthiv Patel, Gujarat
• Akash Christian, Maharashtra
• Dheeraj Jadhav, Baroda
• Jayadev Shah, Rajasthan
• Ranjit Khirid, Rajasthan
• Irfan Pathan, Baroda

The West Zone team is placed the second favorites for the trophy after North Zone.