Jamie Siddons confident in current pool

The return of several experienced Bangladesh players from the defunct ICL has not convinced Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons that his team needs to be tinkered with. Four former ICL players - Shahriar Nafees, Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kapali and Dhiman Ghosh - have been named in a 26-man man preliminary squad for the forthcoming tri-series but Siddons was not too eager to make changes to a squad that has begun winning more consistently.

"It is good that they [the ICL players] have come to preliminary selections and are available for us but they have to continue performing because the boys who have been with us have won us games," he told reporters in Dhaka.

One major concern for the team management is the opener Junaid Siddique, whose extended run of poor form has put pressure on the batting line-up. Junaid's poor form from the ODIs in the West Indies continued at home, when he flopped in every match against Zimbabwe. There has been talk of restoring Shahriar Nafees, who scored a Test century against Australia in 2006 and showed promise before he went to the ICL, back at the top but Siddons was hesitant to do so.

"Opening is a bit of concern but we did well in Zimbabwe where the opening pair added fifty-odd runs every game. Junaid has been a bit inconsistent although he is a talented player," he said. "Shahriar was also very inconsistent when he left us for ICL. It is good that they are scoring runs in the Premier Division Cricket League but it is a big step up from club cricket to international cricket."

Since 13 players defected to form the Dhaka Warriors in September last year, before the 2008-09 season of the ICL, Bangladesh have won 14 ODIs and two Tests. Siddons began coaching Bangladesh in October 2007, replacing Dav Whatmore, and during his tenure Bangladesh won their first overseas Test series, against West Indies in July this year. He recently had his contracted extended to June 2011.