Sunday, 4 June, 2023
E-paper

Tigers shift focus on T20s

  • Sports Correspondent
  • 25 March, 2023 12:00 AM
  • Print news
Tigers shift focus on T20s
The Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan Papon inaugurates ‘Shakib Al Hasan Cancer Foundation’ during a ceremony in the capital on Friday. National Test and T20I skipper Shakib, some other former national and domestic cricketers and coaches also attend the inauguration programme. –BCB PHOTO

Bangladesh are all set to shift their focus on T20Is after having a successful campaign against Ireland in the recently-concluded three-match one-day international series in Sylhet.

The Tigers exhibited one of the complete team performances in recent times during the recent ODI series against Ireland and clinched a 2-0 series win at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

Bangladesh had all the chances to whitewash the touring side in the series but rain forced the second match to end without any result that made the hosts content with a 2-0 series win result at the end.

The Tigers registered their two highest team totals in this format (338-8 and 349-6) during the opening two ODIs while in the third game, they showcased an even more powerful performance to register their first-ever 10-wicket win in an international game.

Meanwhile, for the first time in Bangladesh cricket history, their pacers took all 10 wickets in the same innings of an international game during the last ODI with new pace sensation Hasan Mahmud completing his maiden five-wicket haul in the same game.

Bangladesh hardly got any time to celebrate those successes as the team on Friday moved to port-city Chattogram alongside the tourists to feature in the three-match T20I series.

Bangladesh T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan, who celebrated his 36th birthday on the same day, however, left Sylhet for Dhaka to attend an inauguration programme of ‘Shakib Al Hasan Cancer Foundation’ at a city hotel held in the afternoon.

The Tigers will start the T20I series against Ireland having some great recent results against the current T20 world cup champions England as earlier this month, they whitewashed the Three Lions in a three-match T20I series at home.

The team management included uncapped leg-spinner Rishad Hossain and wicketkeeper-batsman Jaker Ali Anik in their 14-member for the series while Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan and Rejaur Rahman Raja failed to get a place in the current squad.

The team selection suggested that the Tigers aren’t resting on their laurels and are desperate to clinch another clean sweep result against another European side.

The first match of the three-match T20I series will take place at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on March 27 while the remaining two games will be held on March 29 and 31 respectively.

The teams are also scheduled to play a lone Test match series in Dhaka on April 4-8.