PAK vs BAN | Mustafizur Rahman misses out as Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar return for Rawalpindi Test

For the record, Tamim had last played a Test for Bangladesh back in in March 2019 against New Zealand while Sarkar last played in the home Test against Afghanistan in November. Rubel fell out of favour in Test cricket after some poor performances in 2017-18 but Taskin Ahmed's absence brought him back to the side.

"We felt [Najmul Hossain] Shanto has been doing well at every level, especially in the High Performance side while we wanted to give Rubel Hossain another chance in the Test side as Taskin Ahmed isn't fully fit. Soumya has replaced Shadman who requires surgery on his wrist," chief selector Minhajul Abedin said, reported ESPN Cricinfo. 

"Mustafizur was dropped due to poor form. He is not regular member of our Test XI in the recent past for many reasons. We feel that he should spend some good amount of time in the domestic tournament to make sure he gets the bowling fitness that is required to play longer-version cricket. We all know he is a champion bowler but somehow he is unable to meet our expectations and we feel that he is also lacking match fitness to some extent," chief selector Minhajul Abedin told Cricbuzz.