Ashraful new skipper, Mortaza his deputy

FE Team | Published: June 03, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

turday named Mohammad Ashraful its new captain and Mashrafe Mortaza vice captain for both the Test and ODI (one day international) teams.
These two will lead the side till the Twenty20 World Cup to be held in September in South Africa.
For the Sri Lanka Tour Bangladesh's coach will be Shaun Williams, his deputy will be Sarwar Imran, and Ali Asif Khan is to play the role of manager, reports bdnews24.com.
Ashraful, who has played 35 Tests and 101 ODIs, made his debut in the ODIs in April 2001 against Zimbabwe. But he received attention of the cricketing world that very year as he top-scored in both the innings in his debut Test match and hit a brilliant ton in the second innings against the mighty Lankan spinner on a square turner at Colombo turning a terrible mismatch into a slice of history by becoming the youngest ever Test centurion.
In this mission Ashraful will be assisted by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.
Mashrafe, who played 22 Test matches and 66 ODIs, got the new responsibility as a reward for his consistent performance in the recent years despite his problems with injury.
He broke Aftab Ahmed's record to bag 6 for 26 against Kenya, the best bowling figure by any Bangladeshi.
His batting form has been very good recently as he played two attacking innings of 79 and 70 against India in the Test matches at Dhaka bringing him the man-of-the-match award at the first Test. His consistency has made him the second player after the veteran left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique to command a place in the Asian squad replacing Pakistan Speed-star Shoaib Akhtar for the Afro-Asia Cup beginning next month in India.
Mortaza is also a part of the Asian Twenty20 international squad for the one-off match to be played on June 5 in Bangalore.