Opener shortage hits Bangladesh

Javed is Bangladesh's only experienced opening bat

Bangladesh's hopes of beating England at the ICC Knockout tournament in Kenya have been hit by injuries to two key batsmen.

They will be without Mehrab Hossain and Shahriar Hossain, leaving Javed Omar as the only specialist opener in the squad.

It is Bangladesh's first international competition since being granted Test status and they are hoping to improve a record of just three wins in 40 limited overs matches.

Mehrab is the only batsman to score a century in one-day internationals, making 101 against Zimbabwe in March 1999.

Mehrab: 327 runs in 10 one-day matches

Naimur Rahman will captain the side, which leaves for Nairobi on Sunday. They will play warm-up matches against Kenya and Sri Lanka before facing England on October 5.

The winners of the match, the first-ever between the two sides, will face South Africa in the quarter-finals five days later.

"The team has good physical fitness, but you must always remember that they had very little international exposure," said Bangladesh Cricket Board chief Saber Hossain Chowdhury.

Bangladesh will play their first Test match against India in Dhaka from 10-14 November, and hope to arrange at least 10 more in 2001.

Bangladesh squad
Naimur Rahman (captain), Khaled Masud (wkt/vice-captain), Javed Omar, Ehsanul Haq, Habibul Bashar, Akran Khan, Aminul Islam, Al-Shahriar, Enamul Haq, Hasibul Hossain, Monjurul Islam, Mohammad Rafique, Mushfiqur Rahman, Bikash Ranjan Das.