Mustafizur Rahman & 4 other Bangladesh players to leave PSL 2026 midway, play ODI series vs New Zealand

Five Bangladesh players – Mustafizur Rahman, Nahid Rana, Shoriful Islam, Rishad Hossain and Tanzid Hasan – are set to head home midway through the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2026 for national duty. The five players have been named in Pakistan’s ODI squad for a three-ODI series against a second-string New Zealand at home.

Bangaldesh's new selection panel, led by Habibul Bashar, on April 11 announced a 15-man squad for the first two ODIs. No changes were made to the ODI side which beat Pakistan 2-1 at home last month.

"After reviewing the last series, we felt it was a successful one. Bangladesh played good cricket. Some players didn't get opportunities in the XI, and there were also new faces in the setup,” Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) chief selector Bashar said at the press conference.

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"Our approach is to give players enough opportunities once they are brought in. Those who played didn't perform poorly. We believe in maintaining continuity, which is why we have kept the same squad."

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Bashar was asked why major changes were not made to the side ahead of ODI World Cup 2026.

"We do not want to make major changes before the World Cup. If we need to assess someone, we will do so within the next six months or a year. The team's first priority is to win matches. We will build the best team to win, while also planning with the World Cup in mind, but not at the cost of a winning mentality," Bashar added.

The Bangladesh players will join the rest of the squad on April 12 in Dhaka. Among these five, only Mustafizur will return to play in PSL 2026 after the ODI series’ completion on April 23 in Chattogram.

The left-arm pacer is likely to play in Lahore Qalandars' last league clash against Peshawar Zalmi on April 25. The playoffs will begin on April 28 and the final is scheduled to take place on May 3.

Bangladesh’s ODI squad vs New Zealand -

Mehidy Hasan Miraz (c), Soumya Sarkar, Saif Hassan, Tanzid Hassan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, Litton Das (wk), Afif Hossain, Mahidul Islam, Rishad Hossain, Tanvir Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Nahid Rana.