Bangladesh announce 19-man squad for New Zealand T20Is; Mushfiqur Rahim returns

Bangladesh have announced a 19-man squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series against New Zealand starting from September 1. Their veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim has returned after missing out on the Australia series due to strict COVID rules set by Cricket Australia (CA). Rahim had also returned early home from the Zimbabwe tour and will be looking forward to get into the groove ahead of the T20 World Cup 2021.

Bangladesh is one of the eight teams that will go through the qualifying stage to feature in the Super 12 during the mega event. They will face Oman, Papua New Guinea and Scotland and are naturally expected to make it to the top two in the group. The board hasn’t left any stone unturned in their preparations as the team has played a lot of T20Is recently and done well too.

After facing Zimbabwe in three matches away from home, they hosted Australia for five T20Is and dominated the visitors. Bangladesh won the series against Australia by 4-1 and will be looking forward to do well against the Kiwis as well.

Aminul Islam receives a call-up

Bangladesh’s T20I team looks pretty much settled ahead of the T20 World Cup and they haven’t made many changes to the squad that defeated Australia comfortably. Despite Rahim and Liton Das returning to the side, the other wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan has been retained thanks to his impressive show.

Only the leg-spinner Aminul Islam has been added to the squad to bring variety to the bowling attack. He has played seven T20Is so far after making his international debut in September 2019 and picked 10 wickets. As far as the five-match series is concerned, the visitors have named a second string squad with their first-choice players set to play in the second leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Tom Latham has been appointed the captain of the side in Kane Williamson’s absence and it will be interesting how New Zealand cope with the low and slow pitches where Australia completely struggled.

Bangladesh T20I squad for NZ series: Mahmudullah (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mosaddek Hossain, Afif Hossain, Mohammad Naim, Nurul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Mohammad Saifuddin, Shoriful Islam, Taijul Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Aminul Islam, Nasum Ahmed.