KEY POINTS:
A youthful Bangladesh cricket team are targeting consistency on their tour of New Zealand as they look ahead to the next World Cup.
A 15-strong one-day squad led by skipper Mohammad Ashraful arrived in Auckland yesterday to prepare for three limited-over internationals against the Black Caps.
The tour continues with two tests next month.
For the one-dayers, the selectors have dropped opener Shahriar Nafees and offspinner Mahmudullah, replacing them with Junaid Siddique and fast bowler Nazmul Hossain
"There's a couple of older guys here, but we've left a couple of them behind for the test series," new coach Jamie Siddons said.
"For the one-day series, it's a very young side, very inexperienced, but full of enthusiasm and that can go a long way to winning games."
Siddons, an Australian, described the changes in personnel as a case of "turning the corner time".
"We finished in the Super Eights in the last two World Cups and we want to go a little bit further in the next one," he said.
"We need to start rebuilding the one-day side and the young players are exciting players."
He pointed to consistency as the key to success for Bangladesh.
"We know we are not the strongest bowlers or the biggest hitters, but we have our way of going about our cricket and hopefully that will be good enough to win some games," he said.
"But we need to be more consistent. We've won some big games and lost some easy ones."
Ashraful and vice-captain Mashrafe Mortaza are probably the best known of the squad.
Siddons said Mashrafe was starting to come into his own as a world-class fast bowler, while he also nominated Siddique as someone to watch.
"He's a young left-hand batsman and an off-spin bowler who I think has the potential to be something special."
Opening the tour are three build up on-dayers, two of which are against Northern Districts in Hamilton, the first on Sunday, and the other is against Auckland.
There is also a Twenty20 game against a New Zealand 11 to help relief efforts in Bangladesh after last month's deadly cyclone.
- NZPA
