Mashrafe places faith in first-timers

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has placed faith in his World Cup first-timers, believing that if they can combine well with the senior players in the side, the team will be in a good position over the coming weeks, reports Cricinfo.

Among the 15-member squad, four players, including Mashrafe, will play their third World Cup while two will play their second. The nine others will be at their first World Cup and interestingly, the same players will also be playing in Australia and New Zealand for the first time.

The nine have 121 One Day International (ODI) caps between them with Soumya Sarkar and Taijul Islam having made their ODI debut against Zimbabwe on December 1, Bangladesh's last international match before the World Cup. Taijul became the first player in ODIs to take a hat-trick on debut while Soumya managed 20.

Nasir Hossain is the most experienced among the first-timers, having made his debut in the series that immediately followed the 2011 World Cup. Anamul Haque is a regular opener while Mominul Haque has a chance to transform his impressive Test numbers into the ODI format. Sabbir Rahman, who also made his debut in the ODI series against Zimbabwe, is most likely to compete with Nasir for the No.6 slot.

Among the bowlers, Arafat Sunny, Al-Amin Hossain and Taskin Ahmed have made good progress in limited-overs cricket over the past 12 months and will be deemed as reliable as the more experienced Mashrafe and Rubel Hossain.

"It can be very tough but I think our young players are very good," Mashrafe said. "They haven't played a lot of international cricket but they have some experience. So hopefully they will turn out very well. We have some experienced players like Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan. Mahmudullah Riyad and Nasir Hossain are there as well. If the big guns can step up and the young players can help them, we have a great chance."

Much of Bangladesh's chances will depend on Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and the captain Mashrafe. Shakib, Tamim and Mushfiqur are three of Bangladesh's top four run-getters while Mashrafe is the country's joint second highest wicket-taker. Despite leaving out Abdur Razzak, Bangladesh have, what many believe, their best 15 players at the World Cup.

Bangladesh, placed in Group A, will have to beat at least two of the higher-ranked sides as well as the two Associates, if they are to make the quarterfinals.