The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has named the squad for the two ICC World Test Championship (WTC) matches against the West Indies. It'll be Bangladesh's first Test series in West Indies since 2022, when they suffered a clean sweep in a two-match series. Bangladesh brought back left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam for this series. He missed home series against South Africa and also missed the India series before that. The first Test is scheduled to begin on November 22 at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua, followed by the second match on November 30 at Sabina Park in Jamaica. The tour will begin with a 4-day warm-up match from November 15-19 at Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua. After the Test series, Bangladesh will play a limited-overs segment, with the first ODU set for December 8 at Warner Park in St. Kitts. The subsequent ODIs are scheduled for December 10 and December 12, both at the same venue. Read: Pakistan beats Australia by 8 wickets to clinch 3-game ODI series Following the ODI series, the tour will conclude with a three-match T20I series in St. Vincent. The T20Is are slated for December 15, December 17, and December 19, all taking place at Arnos Vale Playing Field in Kingstown. Bangladesh Test Squad: Najmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Shadman Islam, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Zakir Hasan, Mominul Haque Showrab, Mahidul Islam Ankon, Litton Kumer Das (Wicketkeeper), Jaker Ali Anik, Mehidy Hasan Miraz (Vice Captain), Taijul Islam, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Nahid Rana, Hasan Murad.

To play a two-match Test series against the hosts, the South Africa cricket team arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday morning. The first Test of the series will take place in Dhaka on October 21, while the second Test will be played in Chattogram. This series is part of the ongoing cycle of the ICC Test Championship. With two wins in six matches, South Africa are currently in fifth place in the points table, while Bangladesh are in seventh place with three wins in eight matches. So, the upcoming series will provide a great chance for both teams to advance their position in the points table to finish as top two. South Africa’s regular captain, Temba Bavuma, will not be available for the first match in Mirpur due to an injury. In his absence, Aiden Markram will lead them in the series opener. Bavuma is expected to return for the second match in Chattogram, beginning on October 29. Read: BCB appoints Phil Simmons as Head Coach of Bangladesh National Cricket team Left-arm pacer Nandre Burger was named in the original squad, but he is missing the tour due to a lumbar stress fracture. To replace, the South Africa Cricket added Lungi Ngidi for the Bangladesh series. While the South African team has already landed in Dhaka, the BCB has yet to announce the squad. The Bangladesh team just returned home from their disastrous tour of India, where they lost all of two Tests, and three T20Is. South Africa Test squad for Bangladesh series: Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Tony de Zorzi, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Dane Paterson, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne.

Top-order batsman Najmul Hossain Shanto will lead the Bangladesh team in the upcoming two-match series against New Zealand starting later this month. Jalal Younus, chairman of the cricket operation department of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), confirmed the development to media on Saturday (November 18, 2023). “Shanto will lead the team in the two Tests against New Zealand,” Jalal said at a press briefing at the BCB media lounge. In the ICC World Cup 2023, deemed “the worst” for Bangladesh by Shakib Al Hasan, Shanto led the team in two matches when the regular captain Shakib was out of the playing XI due to injury concerns. Read: New Zealand to visit Bangladesh in November for 2-Test series Shakib, who was ruled out of the World Cup before the last match for Bangladesh, is set to miss the upcoming Test series as he continues to recover from a finger injury. Opener Litton Das has also been granted leave for a month. He recently became father of a baby girl. “Litton asked for leave for two months; we have accepted one month,” Jalal confirmed. “He became a father, so he needs leave, and we understand it.” Meanwhile, Allan Donald resigned from his post as the pace bowling coach of Bangladesh. In his absence, coaches from the high-performance unit may join the national team to fulfill his role. The BCB will soon appoint a new pace-bowling coach. Read more: New Zealand tour of Bangladesh in 2023-2024: Schedules, Fixtures, Team

The India national cricket team arrived in Dhaka on Thursday evening. The tourists will play a three-match ODI and two-match Test series against the hosts Bangladesh. Read more:  India to arrive in Dhaka Thursday for ODI, Test series It will be the first series of these two teams in Bangladesh in seven years. India last toured Bangladesh for an ODI and Test series back in 2015 when Bangladesh beat them 2-1 in the ODI series. Bangladesh took on India in 36 ODIs so far, and they won five, with one match ending with no result.  Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian team in this series, while Lokesh Rahul will play the role of his deputy. The first ODI of the series will take place in Dhaka on December 4, while the second will be played at the same venue on December 7. The third and last ODI will be played in Chattogram on December 10.  After the ODI series, both the teams will lock horns in a two-match Test series. The first Test is scheduled to be played in Chattogram from December 14, while the second and last Test will take place in Dhaka from December 22.  Read more: Unofficial Test: India A in the driving seat against Bangladesh A India's squad for Bangladesh ODIs: Rohit Sharma (C), KL  Rahul (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shahbaz Ahmed, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen

India is set to arrive in Dhaka Thursday evening to play a three-match ODI and two-match Test series against hosts Bangladesh. It will be the first ODI series between these teams in Bangladesh in seven years. India last toured Bangladesh for an ODI series in 2015 when the hosts beat them 2-1. Read more: Unofficial Test: India A in the driving seat against Bangladesh A Bangladesh took on India in 36 ODIs; they won five and one was a no result. Rohit Sharma will lead Team India in the series and Lokesh Rahul will play the role of his deputy. The first ODI of the series will take place in Dhaka on December 4 and the second at the same venue on December 7. The third and last ODI will be played in Chattogram on December 10. After the ODI series, both the teams will lock horns in a two-match Test series. The first Test is scheduled to be played in Chattogram from December 14 and the second and last one in Dhaka from December 22. Read more: Unofficial Test: Fragile Bangladesh A on the back foot against India A India squad for ODIs Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shahbaz Ahmed, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Deepak Chahar, and Kuldeep Sen

England's cricket team arrived in Islamabad early Sunday to play its first test series in Pakistan since 2005. Led by Ben Stokes, England will kick off the tour in Rawalpindi -- an adjacent city to Islamabad -- which hosts the first test from next Thursday. The second test will be played at Multan from Dec. 9-13 before England round off the tour with the final test at Karachi from Dec. 17-21. England had played a seven-match T20 series in Pakistan prior to the T20 World Cup in Australia where it went on to beat Pakistan in the final. England was due to tour Pakistan last year before the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates but abandoned the tour due to security concerns after New Zealand had aborted its tour to Pakistan just minutes before the toss in the first ODI at Rawalpindi. There were some concerns over England’s test tour to Pakistan after former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was wounded in Wazirabad, a district in eastern Punjab province, during his protest against the sitting government. “It’s been a long time since England have played test cricket in Pakistan,” Stokes had said in Abu Dhabi last Friday where the team trained for a week before flying out to Pakistan. Read more: England to play 3 Test matches in Pakistan in December “With what happened with Imran Khan recently, there was a little bit of concern, but we have Reg Dickason, who has been the security man for many years with England, and we left it in his capable hands.” Last Monday Khan had met with the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja and British High Commissioner in Lahore and assured the officials that his protest against the government will not disturb England cricket team’s tour to Pakistan. Pakistan had hosted England twice in a test series at UAE over the last 17 years with foreign teams reluctant to travel to Pakistan after the Sri Lanka cricket team was attacked in Lahore in 2009. However, since 2015 Pakistan has started regaining the confidence of foreign countries that it could organize international games at home and have hosted almost all the major cricketing nations, including South Africa and Australia. The three-test series will be part of World Test Championship where Pakistan is sitting in fifth place while England is seventh. Pakistan needs to win the three-test series to keep its hopes alive for next year’s final. Read more: England crush Pakistan in T20 decider to win series 4-3 Pakistan will be without its key fast bowler Shaheen Afridi, who has been ruled out of the series due to knee injury. The home team has also dropped middle-order batter Fawad Alam and ace leg-spinner Yasir Shah due to poor form. Uncapped fast bowlers Haris Rauf and Mohammad Ali have been called up to the squad along with mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed, who is expected to make his debut during the series. England also has injury concerns ahead of the first test with fast bowler Mark Wood in doubt due to a hip injury. Stuart Broad has been given paternity leave from the tour as England will be banking on its experienced fast bowler James Anderson to trouble Pakistan batters. England has included 18-year-old Leicestershire allrounder Rehan Ahmed in the squad after originally drafting him as a net bowler for the tour. Squad: Ben Stokes (capt), Harry Brook, Joe Root, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, Liam Livingstone, Ben Foakes, Will Jacks, Keaton Jennings, Jack Leach, James Anderson, Jamie Overton, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Rehan Ahmed.

South Africa won the toss and opted to bat first in the second of the two-match Test series against Bangladesh at Port Elizabeth on Friday. Bangladesh has, however, made two changes in the playing XI -- Tamim Iqbal has replaced Shadman Islam, and Taijul Islam is in the team in place of Taskin Ahmed, who has been ruled out due to a hand injury. With the return of Tamim, Bangladesh can hope for a strong top-order batting display. Bangladesh lost the first Test in Durban by a big margin of 220 runs after a batting collapse in the second innings. Also Read: SA vs BAN 2022: Bangladesh Aspire to Level the Test Series with Fresh Strategy Mahmudul Hasan Joy was the best performer for Bangladesh in the first Test. The young batter hit a ton in Durban, which was the maiden Test century by any Bangladeshi batter in South Africa. While Bangladesh have made two changes, the hosts are playing with an unchanged XI. Bangladesh (Playing XI): Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque (c), Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das (w), Yasir Ali, Mehidy Hasan, Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain Also Read: Pat Cummins Makes Headlines with Fastest IPL Fifty South Africa (Playing XI): Dean Elgar (c), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Temba Bavuma, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne (w), Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer, Lizaad Williams, Duanne Olivier

With the job half done, Bangladesh are all set to take on New Zealand from Sunday in the second Test of the series aiming to finish the job — to win their first-ever Test series against the Blackcaps. The Tigers, who had no win in New Zealand despite playing a total of 32 matches across all the formats, won the first Test of the series in Tauranga by eight wickets. Along with becoming their first-ever win in New Zealand, this win ended the drought of Bangladesh of not winning a Test against any of the top-five Test teams away from home. Experts said it was one of the best things that Bangladesh have done in their cricketing history, though Masrhafe Bin Mortaza, the former captain of the Tigers is not a big fan of this idea. He rather said ‘not one of the best’, it actually is ‘the best-ever win’ of Bangladesh in cricket regardless of the formats. Read: Bangladesh National Men's Cricket Team Schedules for 2022 Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan echoed Mashrafe. To him, this win proved those who used to think that Bangladesh is unable to do big things sans the service of the big players wrong. Shakib pointed to the absence of himself and Tamim Iqbal in this series. While Tamim was left out due to an injury, Shakib skipped it citing family reasons. “Bangladesh’s media fraternity used to say that the Bangladesh team is all about some four-five players, but it is proved wrong now. The young players are also capable of doing big things if they are given adequate chances,” Shakib said recently during a media interaction in Dhaka. Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo believes the Tigers are pumped-up thanks to the win in the first match, and they are eager to create a new chapter of their history winning the second Test in a tougher condition in Christchurch which will surely offer a wicket with grass on it. Given the current stats of Bangladesh in the longer format of the sport, one might say it’s a daydream of the Tigers to aim for a series win against New Zealand— the current champions of the ICC World Test Championship. But a win with the contribution from most players of the XI changed the atmosphere of the Bangladesh team.

After an incredible day of a Test match with the help of Ebadot Hossain’s late strike, Bangladesh are hoping for something big in the ongoing Test against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui. At the end of day four, New Zealand are leading only by 17 runs with five wickets in hand. If Bangladesh can produce another morning session as they did on day two— scalping five New Zealand wickets inside 70 runs— the visitors can hope big from this match, probably, the biggest Test win ever for them. Ebadot, who averaged more than 80 among the bowlers who scalped at least 10 wickets in Tests, emerged largely on the fourth day afternoon taking three wickets in two consecutive overs and bringing New Zealand down to 136 from two to 136 for five, which eventually kept Bangladesh on the race of winning this match. Bangladesh sent back Tom Latham early in the second innings as well, when Taskin Ahmed bowled a delivery outside off stumps, and Latham went to drive but only managed an inside edge which shattered his stumps. Devon Conway fell prey as Ebadto’s first wicket when New Zealand were at 63. Also read: Bangladesh hold firm after imperious batting display After that, it did seem like a boring draw was coming up. Will Young and Ross Taylor added 73 off 175 balls at the third wicket stand. But when Ebadot managed to trick Young for 69, it seemed the floodgate had opened as the pacer ran a riot after that taking the wickets of Nicholls and Blundell too. Bangladesh could have taken Taylor too if they had not missed two easy chances— a catch by Shadman Islam and an easy-looking run-out. New Zealand ended day four at 147 for five in 63 overs, with Ross Taylor and Rachin Ravindra for 37 and six respectively. For Bangladesh, Ebadot bagged four wickets conceding 39 runs— his best bowling in Tests so far. And the other wicket was taken by Taskin. Earlier, Bangladesh ended up on 458 in their first innings in 176.2 overs— the most overs played by any team in New Zealand after Pakistan’s 193.2 in 2009. In reply to New Zealand’s first innings total of 328, Bangladesh secured a 130-run lead. In the first innings, Conway hit a ton for the hosts. And for Bangladesh, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Mominul Haque and Liton Das hit a fifty each while Mehidy Hasan Miraz scored 47 for Bangladesh in Bangladesh’s first innings. Also read: Mahmudul uncertain for rest of New Zealand series Meanwhile, Mahmudul is uncertain for the remainder of this series as he suffered a blow on his right hand that required three stitches. Bangladesh’s physio Bayejidul Islam said that the batter will undergo a seven to 10-day observation now, which eventually, made his chance to take any further part in this series lean.

Bangladesh’s 21-year-old top-order batter Mahmudul Hasan Joy, after his maiden Test fifty against New Zealand, said that he focused on the deliveries instead of worrying about the bowlers. At the end of day three, Bangladesh are leading by 73 runs with four wickets in hand. In reply to New Zealand’s first innings total of 328, Bangladesh scored 401 for six at stumps. It was only the second Test of Mahmudul (first in New Zealand) where he smashed 78 off 228 balls. Along the way he became the first Bangladeshi opener to face 200 or more deliveries in New Zealand. Also read: Bangladesh hold firm after imperious batting display Before this match, Mahmudul got his Test cap against Pakistan when he got a torrid initiation to Tests-- a duck and six in his first two innings. “They have the best pace-bowling unit in the world,” he said about the pace-bowling attack of the reigning Test champions. “I just wanted to play my regular game. I did not think much over that. My focus was to play the delivers not the names of their bowlers.” Along with Mahmudul, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque and Liton Das have also hit a fifty. Mominul and Liton had passed the 80-run mark too but fell short of a few runs from their first Test century in New Zealand. “My plan was to face as many balls as possible, and the runs will come along the way. All of my partners in the middle have said this. It was the reason behind my calmness on the wicket. I must admit that the preparation ahead of the series has helped me a lot,” he added. Mahmudul and Shadman Islam put up a 43-run opening stand— highest in recent times. In the absence of the veteran batter Tamim Iqbal, Bangladesh’s top-order has been struggling for a long time. Also read: Bangladesh takes lead after Mominul, Liton heroics “Shadman and I wanted to make the ball old,” Mahmudul said while talking about playing the new ball. “If I would have thought more, there was a big chance of losing the wicket. So we kept thinking ball by ball, and it eventually resulted in a good way.”