In September 2019, Sabbir lost his place in the team after failing in the T20 series at home. Later, this cricketer from Rajshahi fell behind due to various personal controversial cases. After being dropped from the national team, he was not even found with the bat in four domestic T20 tournaments.

Sabbir played 12 innings in Dhaka Premier League T20 last year but did not see fifty. After not performing well in the last BPL, Chittagong Challengers lost their place in the team. He scored only 109 runs in 6 matches at an average of 18.16. Despite that, why was Sabbir Rahman returned to the team? Chief selector Minhajul Abedin Nannu explained the reason for taking Sabbir to the team. He said, “Sabbir is an experienced cricketer. We have seen in domestic cricket, he has experience in international cricket in T20. The team has been taken from these thoughts. We have discussed with the team management and decided on Sabbir.”

The chief selector also said, ‘Some players have to think like this in some places, they have to see international experience. Since we have more injuries this time, we need an extra middle-order batsman.’ Therefore, a cricketer who has not been in the game for a long time should be selected for such a mega event.

Minhajul Abedin Nannu said, “Sabbir is fully fit. He has honed his fitness and skills by practicing at the camp of Bangladesh Tigers.
And that’s where the chief selector claimed that glimpses of his improvement were seen. The chief selector said, ‘Sabbir did not play too badly in the DPL. He is in nursing. Some cricketers are nursed in two places. HP Squad and Tigers have camps going on; we are monitoring their development there. Since there is no domestic cricket now, we are watching in that camp. We saw Sabbir there too.
However, Nannu also said that Sabbir will play against foreign teams before the Asia Cup.

He said, “For this, we have sent him to the West Indies for the ‘A’ team. Playing there will give you an experience like international cricket. Hopefully, he will use that experience. Bangladesh ‘A’ team’s tour of the West Indies limited overs series has not started yet. So Sabbir’s form is yet to be known. Sabbir was once a regular performer on Bangladesh team. He was considered one of the fittest cricketers in the country for T20. He also gave some great performances in this version. He was called the hard hitter of the national team. But his batting was never consistent.