CHITTAGONG, Nov 1: Prolific batsman Habibul Bashar returns to lead Bangladesh in the opening one-dayer against New Zealand here on Tuesday after recovering from a thumb injury.

Bashar, who missed a recent two-match Test series against the tourists due to the injury, is his team's leading scorer in Test cricket with 2,079 runs in 30 matches.

He is now just 64 short of completing 1,000 runs in one-day internationals.

Bangladesh lost both the home Tests against New Zealand, but Bashar said his team would try to put in a better performance in the shorter version of the game.

"We didn't perform up to our potential in Test matches, but hope to do better in one-dayers," he said.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said his team would not take Bangladesh lightly despite winning all the four one-dayers played so far between the two sides.

"There are some good one-day players in their side, so we can't take them lightly," said Vettori, who was named man of the Test series after grabbing 20 wickets in two matches.

The left-arm spinner is leading in the absence of Stephen Fleming, who returned home after the Test series to rest an abdominal injury.

New Zealand made five changes from the squad that won the Test series, naming Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Craig McMillan, Andre Adams and Peter Fulton for the three one-dayers. The remaining two matches will played at Dhaka on Friday and Sunday.

Bangladesh have won only five of their 95 one-day matches so far.

New Zealand (from): Daniel Vettori (capt), Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Hamish Marshall, Craig McMillan, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Brendon McCullum, Mathew Sinclair, Peter Fulton, James Franklin, Ian Butler, Andre Adams, Kyle Mills.

Bangladesh (from): Habibul Bashar (capt), Rajin Saleh, Khaled Mashud, Javed Omar, Khaled Mahmud, Mohammad Ashraful, Manjural Rana, Tapash Baisya, Mohammad Rafique, Mushfiqur Rahman, Nafis Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Nazmul Hossain.--AFP