The chief selector of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Minhajul Abedin, has said a defeat in the warm-up is nothing to be worried about. The Bangladesh national cricket team is playing two warm-up matches ahead of the T20 World Cup which is set to begin in Oman on October 17. On Tuesday, Bangladesh played their first warm-up match against Sri Lanka and lost by four wickets. Read: Tigers lose the plot while fielding to lose first warm-up against SL “It can happen in warm-up matches,” Minhajul told the media on Wednesday while inaugurating a World Cup news-related website in Dhaka. “We experiment many things in warm-up matches. So this is not a big deal.” According to Minhajul, the Bangladesh team will be able to prepare well before the World Cup takes the field. “It’s a good luck that we are playing a few practice matches ahead of the World Cup. I believe that we can prepare ourselves well ahead of the main event starts. We also have another practice match on October 14, I hope we can do well,” Minhajul told the media. Read: Mahmudullah out of Bangladesh’s first warm-up match In the second official warm-up match, Bangladesh will take on Ireland at Abu Dhabi on October 14. After that, the Tigers will fly back to Oman and start their World Cup campaign with the match against Scotland on October 17. Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad missed the first warm-up match due to a back injury, but he is expected to play the second match against Ireland. Mustafizur Rahman, fresh from IPL, is also expected to play in this match. In Round 1 of the World Cup, Bangladesh will face Scotland, Oman and Papua New Guinea. If the Tigers can win two matches, they will advance to the Super 12s of the World Cup and join the teams like India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan.

Bangladesh chief selector Minhajul Abedin says Shakib Al Hasan’s inclusion in the Zimbabwe tour for a Test, three ODIs and three T20Is will boost the confidence of the team. The allrounder missed the previous Test tour of Bangladesh to Sri Lanka, and he was also out of action during Bangladesh’s New Zealand tour earlier this year. Bangladesh national team will travel to Zimbabwe on June 29, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Wednesday announced three different squads for this tour. Left-handed allrounder Shakib made it to all these squads. “It’s a plus point for us that we got our best player back into the setup,” Minhajul told the media in a press conference after announcing the team on Wednesday. “I believe the team will be boosted morally with this inclusion. I hope he will deliver well which eventually will help the team’s performance.” Also read: Shakib banned for three matches, fined Tk 5 lakh Bangladesh included newbie Shamim Hossain Patwary in the T20I squad. Shamim was one of Bangladesh’s main weapon during their U-19 World Cup-winning campaign in South Africa in 2020. “We have been observing him since he came into the High-performance Unit. He did well when Ireland Wolves toured Bangladesh this year. He also did well in the matches he got a chance at afterwards. We hope his skill will help the national team do well,” Minhajul added. Shamim played 19 List-A, 27 T20s and only First-class matches to the date. He is known as one of the best fielders who are currently playing in Bangladesh. The left-handed batsman is also capable of scoring runs quickly, and he can also be handy as a right-arm off-spin. Left-handed top-order batsman Soumya Sarkar has been omitted from the ODI squad. Minhajul said to pave way for a left-arm spinner, they considered resting Soumya from ODIs for now. Also read: DPL Super League begins Saturday without Shakib, Tamim “The team management wanted to have a left-arm spinner in the squad. So have decided to include Taijul Islam instead of Soumya, and we also added Nurul Hasan Sohan,” Minhajul told the media. Sohan is added to all three squads of the game for the Zimbabwe series. He has been doing tremendously well in the ongoing edition of the Bangabandhu Dhaka Premier Division Twenty20 League for Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club. “His current form is enough to call him back to the national team,” Minhajul said about Sohan. “He did well in the practice sessions in Sri Lanka when he was in the primary squad. We believe he has the ability to do well for the national team.”

Eight divisional teams have been finalised ahead of the National Cricket League (NCL) 2021.

After a long gap of nine months, Bangladesh cricket team are all set to get back into action with bat and ball from January 20.

The country’s highest wicket-taker in ODIs and longest-serving captain Mashrafe Mortaza has been left out of the preliminary squad for the West Indies series.

Minhajul Abedin, the chief selector of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), said starting domestic cricket is the first priority of the board in the post-COVID-19 era.

Former Pakistan captain and cricket superstar Wasim Akram insisted that Bangladesh came a long way and improved immensely in cricket.