Bangladesh have left former captain Tamim Iqbal out of their 15-man squad for the ODI World Cup in India.

BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin explained the exclusion saying, “We are all aware that Tamim Iqbal is a long-term injury concern. He returned for the New Zealand series. After the first match, there was a bit of a complain. We thought of his injury concern when not taking him in the squad.

“We have spoken to all concerned, before taking this decision. We discussed it with Tamim. We can’t tell you what we spoke about. We discussed it with the team management, and didn’t want to take a risk in a long World Cup campaign. It is a very important event.”

The Bangladesh side will travel to Guwahati on Wednesday for two warm-up matches against Sri Lanka on 29 September and against England on 2 October, before the World Cup begins on 5 October.

The side will then move to Dharamshala for their tournament opener against Afghanistan on 7 October.

Bangladesh squad: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Liton Das, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib.

© Agence France-Presse