Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiuqr Rahim announced retirement from T20 Internationals. He announced his retirement through his social media page where he also said he would continue playing ODIs and Tests for Bangladesh and T20s at the domestic level.  The decision came after Bangladesh’s shocking exit from the Asia Cup T20 where the Tigers failed to win any match and subsequently were out of the event right from the first round losing to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.  Mushfiqur batted in both matches and failed to impress. He managed to score 1 against Afghanistan and 4 against Sri Lanka. His failure cost the matches for Bangladesh.  “I have been grateful to have you all beside me throughout my long career. Your support has been my inspiration during my highs and lows,” Mushfiqur wrote on his social media. “Today, I am announcing my retirement from T20 Internationals. I will proudly continue to represent Bangladesh in Test and ODI formats. I am hopeful that I can bring success for our nation in these two formats.” Mushfiqur got his T20I cap in 2006 against Zimbabwe. The match was the first-ever T20I for both Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Since then, Mushfiqur played 102 T20Is for Bangladesh and scored 1500 runs with six fifties. He was among only the three players who have played at least 100 T20Is for Bangladesh.   Read: Mushfiqur Rahim completes 15 years in international cricket With Mushfiqur now retired, Shakib Al Hasan is now the only Bangladeshi player from Bangladesh’s maiden T20I who is still active in the format at the international level.  The right-handed batter has some wonderful innings in T20Is, but he was never as consistent in T20Is as he is in ODIs and Tests. His best innings in T20Is is an unbeaten 72 off 35 balls against Sri Lanka in Colombo. At the same venue, he scored another unbeaten 72 off 55 balls against India. Both the innings were notched up in 2018.  “I will continue to take part in Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and other franchise tournaments. Alhamdulillah. Thank you all. Allah Hafez,” Mushfiuqr added in this retirement announcement.  Mushfiqur also led Bangladesh in 23 T20Is and won eight of them. He was Bangladesh’s captain in two T20 World Cups— in 2012 and in 2014 with the latter was host by Bangladesh.

In a decisive shift, newly-appointed technical consultant Sridharan Sriram will call the shots for Bangladesh during the upcoming Asia Cup, and overall in T20Is going forward, BCB president Nazmul Hasan Papon confirmed to the media today. Head Coach Russell Domingo, will now work concentrate on Tests and ODIs - as such, he is not even going to be with the team in UAE for the regional T20I honours. Last week, the BCB confirmed the appointment of Sridharan— a former Indian player and coach of several IPL teams. “As of now, we have no head coach during the Asia Cup,” Nazmul told the media on Monday. “Domingo will remain our coach in Tests in ODIs. We have a fielding coach, batting coach and other staff. Sridharan will give us the plan to do well in T20Is, now why do we need a head coach?” Also read: Asia Cup squad: Md Naim called up on eve of departure In an unconventional move, the BCB president said the coaching staff will be under the leadership of himself and other directors of the board who will be travelling with the team. UNB has learnt that the board president and Jalal Yunus, the chairman of the BCB cricket operations committee, are confirmed to travel with the team during the Asia Cup. “We may have different captains in white-ball and red-ball cricket,” Nazmul added. “We also need different teams in the different formats of the game with different coaching panels for our teams. Unless we have all of these, we are not prepared well.” This is not the first time that the BCB is thinking to appoint different captains for different formats of the game. Until Mominul Haque was removed from the Test captaincy, Bangladesh had three different captains in the three different formats of cricket. While Mominul was the Test captain, Mahmudullah Riyad and Tamim Iqbal were the captains of T20Is and ODIs respectively. But some dismal results led to Mominul's resignation from the longest format, and Riyad's time was up in the shortest one. Also read: Don't expect big things at Asia Cup: Shakib Shakib was bestowed the responsibility in both cases. Tamim remains ODI skipper. The Bangladesh team will fly to the UAE on August 23 to play in the Asia Cup. A total of six teams are going to play in the biggest cricketing event in Asia. In the group stage, Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on August 29 and September 1.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will start selling tickets for the two-match T20 series between Bangladesh and Afghanistan from Wednesday.  This time, the board will sell 100% of the tickets of Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium’s capacity, Tanvir Ahmed, the chairman of BCB’s media department told the media.  The first match of the series will take place on March 3 while the second and final T20 will be played on March 5. Due to the Covid-19 situation, BCB restricted entry of the spectators during most part of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) recently. However, a few thousand spectators were allowed to enter the stadium during the play-off phase. READ: Gurbaz guides Afghanistan to easy win  In the first part of the ongoing series in Chattogram, 50 per cent of the spectators were allowed at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.  The minimum price of a ticket is BDT 150 and the maximum price of a ticket is BDT 1000. READ: BAN vs AFG 2022: Notable T20I records between Bangladesh vs Afghanistan Tickets will be available to buy at the Shohrawardy Indoor Stadium booth in Mirpur 10. Along with that, tickets will be available on the match days at the ticket selling point close to the main venue, beside gate number one of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

Experienced Mushfiqur Rahim has been rested as Bangladesh Cricket Board announced a 16-member squad for the three-match T20I series against Pakistan. To replace out-of-form Mushfiqur the BCB has called young Akbar Ali, the leader of Bangladesh’s U-19 World Cup victory last year in the squad announced on Tuesday afternoon. Along with Mushfiqur, Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das – all of them from the T20 World Cup team _ have also been axed from the squad with the latter two being out of the set-up due to their lean show in recent matches. Also read: Bangladesh vs. Pakistan Series 2021: T20I Ranking Prediction Right-arm pacer Rubel Hossain is also out of the T20I side. Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin are unavailable due to injuries. A total of six players who were Bangladesh’s part in the T20 World Cup have been omitted while four uncapped players— Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali, Shohidul Islam and Akbar Ali-- have been included in the national team. Among the new faces, Saif Hassan has played in Tests, but the others are yet to don the national team jersey in any format of the game. The three-match T20I series will take place on November 19, 20 and 22 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Around 50 per cent of spectators of the total capacity of the Sher-e-Bangla will be allowed to enjoy the game in person at the stadium. However, the BCB is yet to announce the details about ticket sale. Also read: Rizwan reveals secrets of Pakistan’s strength in T20 WC After the T20 series, both the teams will take on each other in two-match Test series starting from November 26 in Chattogram, with the second Test to be played in Dhaka from December 4. It is going to be the first international cricket event for Bangladesh after the disastrous T20 World Cup campaign in Oman and UAE where Bangladesh lost six out of eight matches they played. Bangladesh squad for Pakistan T20Is: Mohammad Naeem, Saif Hasan, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Yasir Ali Rabbi, Mahmudullah Riyad (captain), Nurul Hasan Sohan (wicketeeper), Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Aminul Islam Biplob, Mohammad Shohidul Islam and Akbar Ali (wicketkeeper).

Bangladesh  won the toss and opted to bat first in the fourth T20I against Australia on Saturday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.  Bangladesh won the series with three consecutive wins in the first three matches of the five-match series. It was Bangladesh’s maiden series win against Australia in any format of cricket.  Read: Tigers create history as Australia are left with no answers Bangladesh fielded an unchanged XI in this match while Australia made two changes— overlooking Adam Zampa and Nathan Ellis to pave way for Andrew Tye and Mitchell Swepson.  After wrapping up the series, Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad said that the Tigers are a better team in T20Is than the ranking suggests.  Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed and Mahmudullah played the big roles behind Bangladesh’s unprecedented success against Australia.  Read: BAN vs. AUS 2021: Bangladesh Secure Historic Series Win OVER AUSTRALIA Bangladesh (Playing XI): Mohammad Naim, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahedi Hasan, Mahmudullah(c), Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan(w), Shamim Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed Australia (Playing XI): Ben McDermott, Matthew Wade(w/c), Mitchell Marsh, Moises Henriques, Alex Carey, Ashton Turner, Daniel Christian, Ashton Agar, Andrew Tye, Mitchell Swepson, Josh Hazlewood

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made a change into the Test squad which will tour Zimbabwe later this month by including allrounder Mahmudullah Riyad to the squad.  BCB has previously announced a 17-member squad, and now it increased to 18- member.  READ: From U-19 star to national team prospect: The incredible journey of Shamim Mahmudullah played his last Test during Bangladesh’s Pakistan tour last year. He was later omitted from the longer format of the game.  The right-handed allrounder played a total of 49 Tests to date and amassed 2764 runs with four centuries and 16 half-centuries. He also scalped 43 wickets with one five-wicket haul.  The Zimbabwe series will kick off with the one-off Test on July 7 while three ODIs will take place on July 16, 18 and 20 while the T20Is will be played on July 23, 25 and 27 respectively.  Test and ODIs will be started at 1:30 pm (Bangladesh time) while T20Is will be commenced at 4:30 pm (Bangladesh time).  READ: T20 WC shifted to UAE from India All the matches of this series will be hosted at the Harare Sports Club.

Despite a blazing fifty from Soumya Sarkar, Bangladesh lost the 2nd T20I of the three-match series against New Zealand at Napier on Tuesday by 28 runs in DL method.  At the end of the match, there are many talks are about the DL method under which Bangladesh’s revised target in the rain-hit game raised from 148 to 170 and then to 171. There was no official explanation about it after the game.  New Zealand batted first and scored 173 for five in 17.5 overs and right after that the rain hit the game and that was the end of the New Zealand innings.  2nd T20I: Bangladesh need 170 in 16 overs as rain hits the game Bangladesh started chasing knowing that they have to score 148 in 16 overs to level the series. But the game stopped after 1.2 overs and the target changed to 170 by the match referee Jeff Crowe. And later, the target was reset again to 171 runs in 16 0vers.  Liton Das fell early once again, and the right-hander continued on a poor run. He scored six this time around. Some came at number three and for the first time in this series, he looked like his expected form. The southpaw hit 51 off 27 balls with five fours and three sixes. But his aggression came to the end when he tried to clear Tim Southee and Adam Milne took a fine catch at the long-on area. The onus was on Mahmudullah Riyad to carry on the good batting display. He tried as well hitting 21 off 12 balls with four fours. But while scooping Milne through the leg area, he missed the ball and his stumps were shattered.  Also Read: Bangladesh opt to bowl first in 2nd T20 vs New Zealand With the dismissal of Mahmudullah, Bangladesh lost the race to the Kiwis. Eventually, the Tigers ended up on 142 for seven in 16 overs and lost the game by 28 runs under the DL method.  For New Zealand, Tim Southee, Hamish Bennett and Adam Milne scalped two wickets each.  Earlier, after losing the toss and opted to bowl first, Bangladesh leaked away many runs in the first few overs. But in the fourth over of the game, Taskin Ahmed bagged the first wicket removing Finn Allen for 17 off 10 balls.  In the same over, Finn was dropped by the captain Mahmudullah Riyad. However, in the last ball of the over, Mohammad Naim took an easy catch to dismiss Finn who was playing his second ODI.  New Zealand lost two more wickets when Martin Guptill and Devon Conway fell prey to Mohammad Saifuddin and Shoriful Islam respectively. While Guptill fell in the last ball of the sixth over by a stunning catch from Taskin, Conway was dismissed off the first ball of the seventh over.  The rain hit the game for the first time in the match during the 13th over when the Kiwis were batting at 102 for four in 12.2 overs. The game was delayed by 10 minutes and no over was lost.  The rain came back when the Kiwis were batting at 173 for five in 17.5 overs and that was the end of their innings with Glenn Phillips scoring the highest— 58 off 30 balls.   For Bangladesh, Mahedi Hasan took two wickets while Saifuddin, Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful took one wicket each.  The third and final T20 of the series will take place on April 1.  Before the T20Is series, the Tigers faced off the Kiwis in three ODIs and lost the series 3-0. Bangladesh are yet to register any win in New Zealand. 

After completion of the managed isolation and quarantine in New Zealand, the Bangladesh team will be free to move around from Wednesday, a Bangladesh Cricket Board statement reads.

Bangladesh leg-spinner Aminul Islam Biplob said he is eager to play red-ball cricket for the Tigers.

Zimbabwe captain Sean Williams won the toss and opted to bowl first in the third and final match of the three-match series at Sylhet International Stadium on Friday.