Defending champions Bangladesh Under-19 Cricket team will fly for United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday (Nov 24) in a hope to retain the U-19 Asia Cup Cricket title beginning there on Friday (November 29).
Earlier on Thursday (November 21), Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a 14-member final squad of Bangladesh Youth team for the eight-nation continental youth cricket tournament naming Azizul Hakim Tamim as the captain.
Bangladesh clinched their maiden and only U-19 Asia Cup crown beating UAE by a huge margin of 195 runs in the last year's final.
The official photo session of Bangladesh team for the upcoming one-day format Youth Asia Cup Cricket was held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Saturday.
Later, addressing the pressmen, Bangladesh skipper Tamim said, "we are the defending champions, our team is studded with five cricketers of the last champions team, so we are very much optimistic to win the title this time too".
"We worked hard in last three to four months, our confidence level is now high after winning the home series against UAE, we wants to win the U-19 World Cup crown also apart from winning the ensuing Asia Cup title '" he added
Eight Asian teams--five full-member countries –India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan-- alongside three qualified teams—Nepal, Japan and UAE –split into two groups, will compete in the first phase of the upcoming Asia Cup.
Bangladesh, which was placed in four-team Group B with Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, will play Afghanistan in one of the two opening day’s matches on November 29 at Dubai International Stadium.
Bangladesh will play Nepal on December 1 and Sri Lanka on December 3 in the remaining group matches.
Ahead of the main draw, Bangladesh team will play a warm-match against India on November 26 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Bangladesh U-19 team: Azizul Hakim Tamim (captain), Jawad Arbar (vice-captain), Rifat Beg, Samiun Bashir Ratul, Devashis Sarkar, Rizan Hossain, Al Fahad, Iqbal Hasan Emon, Rafiuzzaman Rafi, Farid Hasan Foysal, Maruf Mrida, Shihab James, Ashrafuzzaman and Saad Islam Razi.