Mashud left out of Bangladesh squad

Mushfiqur Rahim's promising efforts in Zimbabwe have won him a World Cup place © AFP

Bangladesh have named their 15-man squad for the World Cup and, as widely predicted, they have left out their experienced wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud and chosen Mushfiqur Rahim, who performed well on the recent tour of Zimbabwe.

Habibul Bashar, the captain, said that he was looking forward to the tournament. "I was a member of the World Cup team four years back and then we had hardly any ambition rather than playing good cricket," he said. "The scenario is totally changed now after we have already won a number of matches in the recent past."

"We are going to the World Cup with lot of confidence this time, especially after the away series victory and definitely our target is to make a second round berth. We know it will not be an easy task to beat at least one team like India and Sri Lanka to make our dream come true. But I think there is hardly any meaning to our trip if we have no target. I will not be surprised if my team beat any big fish in the competition."

Bangladesh squad Habibul Bashar (capt), Shariar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Saqibul Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafe Mortaza, Shahadat Hossain, Tapash Baisya, Syed Rasel, Rajin Saleh, Javed Omar.