Ashraful dropped for England ODIs

Bangladesh's highest-profile batsman, Mohammad Ashraful, has been dropped from a 13-man squad for the three-match one-day series against England, which gets underway on Sunday, after an extended run of poor form. His place in the squad has been taken by the uncapped allrounder, Mohammad Sohrawordhi, while the country's leading strike bowler, Mashrafe Mortaza, comes back into the reckoning after an eight-month injury lay-off.

Since scoring a century on debut as a 17-year-old, against Sri Lanka at Colombo in September 2001, Ashraful has gained a reputation as one of the most naturally gifted batsmen in the world game, and on rare occasions, such as his matchwinning century against Australia in June 2005, he has lived up to that star billing.

But his respective Test and ODI averages of 22.78 and 23.72 do his talent no justice whatsoever, and the past 12 months have been particularly torrid. His last century came against Zimbabwe in August 2009, shortly after he was relieved of the captaincy to help him concentrate on run-scoring, but he managed just 62 runs in six innings, across all three forms of the game, on the recent tour of New Zealand.

"Ashraful himself wanted a break and we also felt that the pressure on him had increased to the extent that his confidence was suffering," said the Bangladesh chairman of selectors, Raqiful Alam. "We believe that a gap from international cricket would be beneficial for him and he will come back strongly soon and do justice to his calibre."

Ashraful's replacement, Sohrawordhi, adds depth to the team, in the opinion of the selectors. "He is a very capable cricketer and is in the team as a specialist left-arm spinner," said Alam. "He can also be a more than handy batsman in the middle and lower-order and he is a top fielder. He is someone who has progressed step-by-step through the development system and has been a consistent performer at Academy and A Team levels over the years."

The return of Mortaza is the big boost to the Bangladesh squad, following his latest bout of rehabilitation after suffering a knee injury in the Caribbean in July. Although he went wicketless in his appearance for the BCB XI in Fatullah on Thursday, the selectors are confident that he is ready to resume his role of strike bowler.

"He has played in the practice match today [against England] and he has also been declared fit by his doctor," said Alam. "Someone like Mortaza has got nothing to prove regarding his ability and we have confidence in him. He is a big-match player."

Roqibul Hasan, who toured New Zealand earlier this month but made just 9 in his solitary ODI at Napier, was not able to preserve his place in the squad when he fell for 14 in the Fatullah warm-up, while the selectors also omitted the pacemen Nazmul Hossain and Shahadat Hossain because of the balance of the side.

Bangladesh squad Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Zunaed Siddique, Aftab Ahmed Chowdhury, Mahmud Ullah, Naeem Islam, Masrafe Bin Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Md. Sohrawordhi.