Zimbabwe to play T20I series in Bangladesh
Bangladesh will host Zimbabwe in a four-match T20I series starting from January 15 in Khulna, Bangladesh The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made the announcement on Tuesday. This is going to be Bangladesh's longest T20I series and has been organised owing to the upcoming Asia Cup T20Is and World T20 tournaments.
Earlier two venues, Khulna and Sylhet, were supposed to be used for the series. However, due to the Under-19 World Cup that is going to be held in Bangladesh, Sylhet will be used as one of the venues for the junior tournament. Only Khulna will be used for the Zimbabwe series.
Although the BCB did not confirm the match timings for the four T20Is to be held, they will be held on January 15, 17, 20 and 22.
The cricket operations committee of the BCB had earlier proposed including one Test in the tour, but according to the BCB President Zimbabwe only wanted to play matches in the shortest format of the game.
Zimbabwe had toured Bangladesh in November 2015, and the Test matches that were meant to be held, did not. Hence, it is very likely that Bangladesh will tour Zimbabwe to play up to three Tests in June or July 2016.
In the series that happened in November, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe had played three ODIs and two T20Is. Bangladesh had won the ODI series 3-0 while the T20I series was tied 1-1.
Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, both, are to play in the T20I Qualifiers before the World T20 starts. This series could prove crucial to both teams in their preparations for the T20I World Cup.
Bangladesh squad for the first two T20Is against Zimbabwe: Mashrafe Mortaza (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Arafat Sunny, Nurul Hasan, Shuvagata Hom, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Hider, Al-Amin Hossain.