Cricket returns with Afghans' arrival

Cricket fever is all set to grip the cricket-crazy fans in the country after a long break with the arrival of the Afghanistan team this afternoon. It will be the first bilateral series against Bangladesh for the war-torn ICC associate member country. The three-match ODI series will be followed by a three-match ODI and two-match Test series against England in October.

The series will be named after Rocket Dutch-Bangla Bank Mobile Banking Bangladesh-Afghanistan ODI series as Dutch-Bangla Bank won the title sponsorship right for all BCB home international commitments for next two years from T Impress Matra Consortium, which got the title sponsorship and in-stadia sponsorship rights for a period of two years starting from September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2018 as the highest bidder.

The two sides will play the three-match series on September 25, 28 and October 1 at the Sher-e- Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur and before that Afghanistan is scheduled to play a practice match at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium on September 23.

The BCB selection panel named a 13–member team for the practice match against Afghanistan.

Bangladesh and Afghanistan have so far played two ODIs and equally shared the honour as Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in the Asia Cup 2014 in Fatullah but lost in the 2015 World Cup in Australia against the Tigers.

In their only bilateral series against a full member nation, in October 2015 against Zimbabwe, Afghanistan emerged winners by a 3-2 margin. 

BCB XI SQUAD

Imrul Kayes, Anamul Hoque, Mosaddek Hossain, Shabbir Rahman, Litton Das, Shuvagata Hom, Abu Hider Rony, Sanjamul Islam, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Al-Amin (Jr), Shuvashish Roy, Mehedi Hasan Miraz and Alauddin Babu.