NAIROBI, Aug 9: Pressure to succeed on their African tour has forced the Bangladesh team management to drop two senior players from the squad to face Kenya in a three-match one-day series starting here on Saturday.

Opener Javed Omar and all-rounder Alok Kapali are expected to depart Nairobi for Dhaka on Thursday morning after being axed from the team after the loss in Zimbabwe.

“The management feels there are more players than needed in the team for this tour,” team manager Mohammed Shafique Haque said.

“We went to Zimbabwe with 16 players and we feel 14 are enough for the three matches. It is the decision of the Cricket Board and the selectors.”

Officials said Bangladesh Cricket Board chief selector Faruque Ahmed felt Javed and Kapali had failed to impress in Zimbabwe.

Javed scored just 24 runs in the first three ODIs and was dropped for the last two games while Kapali played only

the first and fourth games

and made only 33 with no wickets.

Meanwhile middle-order batsman Tushar Imran arrived on Tuesday as a replacement for the injured skipper Habibul Bashar.—AFP