Bangladesh chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu defended the national selection process ahead of the Ireland T20 series, insisting that captain Liton Das had been consulted before the omission of Shamim Hossain Patwary, despite the captain publicly expressing frustration at being left out of the decision making loop.
Lipu told Cricfrenzy that he met with both Liton and head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe during the fourth day of the second Test in Mirpur, describing it as part of the board’s standard protocol. “As part of our regular process, we take everyone’s opinion. Sometimes that leads to long discussions. On that day, the captain was requested to come to the selectors room and he did,” he said.
In that meeting, Shamim’s place was discussed directly. “We talked about the batting lineup and other issues, and we specifically discussed Shamim Patowary,” Lipu said. He acknowledged that both Liton and the coach supported Shamim’s inclusion. “The captain said that based on what Shamim has done recently, he wants him in the squad. The coach agreed with him.”
Despite their backing, the selectors ultimately left Shamim out on performance grounds. Lipu suggested that Liton may have assumed the player’s inclusion was guaranteed simply because the conversation took place. “Perhaps the captain thought Shamim would be in the squad. He might have taken it for granted. But I did not confirm the team to him in any way, so he was quite surprised.”
Lipu added that once the selectors finalised their choices, the list was handed to the cricket operations department with a brief explanation, before going through the approval process. There was no further conversation with Liton after that point, something Lipu said was in line with procedure.
The dispute has exposed tension around communication within Bangladesh cricket at a time when the team is preparing to move from a 2 0 Test series win into a new format against Ireland.
