• Source:JND
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JE Sports Desk:  Bangladesh will include batter Rony Talukdar in their squad for the remaining two ODI matches against Afghanistan after the surprising retirement of Tamim Iqbal.

A Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official confirmed on Thursday the need to fill up the position of a third opener in the squad after Tamim decided to say goodbye to his long career.

"Rony (Talukdar) will be drafted in the squad as we need to have another opener in the squad considering there is no Tamim Iqbal for us," Cricbuzz quoted the BCB official as saying, and also said Litton Kumar Das is expected to be leading the side while a new captain will be announced soon with Shakib al Hasan being the top runner for the post.

Talukdar first joined the Bangladesh squad during the home series against Ireland and also remained part of the squad that had flown to England to play three ODIs against Ireland.

Tamim's return to the team saw Talukdar's exclusion but now his departure makes way for the right-handed batter once again.

Talukdar has played only one ODI so far where he scored four runs and has 200 runs to his name in seven T2OIs he has played for Bangladesh.

Earlier, veteran batter Tamim Iqbal shocked world cricket with the sudden announcement of his retirement. The shocking decision came just a day after Bangladesh suffered an unexpected loss to Afghanistan in a rain-curtailed encounter.

The Bangla Tigers will now have to look for a new captain with the ODI World Cup in India months away.

Tamim confirmed his retirement from T20Is around the same time last year. He had played his last Test for the country against Ireland in April.

Tamim has scored the most number of runs for the team (8313) as well as hundreds (14) in the ODI format. Among active cricketers, he is the third-highest run-getter, only behind Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in one-day cricket.