In an attempt to expedite the women's team's Test debut, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has planned to hold a first-class competition, through a revamped Women's Bangladesh Cricket League (WBCL), later this month.

In 2021, along with Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, Bangladesh were granted Test status after the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to award all their full member women's teams Test and ODI status permanently.

Although three and a half years have passed since then, the Tigresses are yet to feature in the game's elite format, with their participation remaining limited to the white-ball formats, where they are also achieving successes now and then.

The maiden WBCL last year was played as a two-day tournament, involving three teams, but this time the competition will see four teams clashing in three-day encounters.

"If we want to play Tests, we need to play first-class matches. If we can play this year and also next year, we will be eligible to play Test matches," BCB's women's wing head Habibul Bashar told The Daily Star yesterday.

"The women's BCL, a three-day tournament, will be quite similar to men's BCL," said Bashar, further informing that they are planning to host the event in the third week of this month.

"Each team will face the others once in the competition. We will play two rounds this month. The other round will be played after our return from the West Indies.

"We are trying to start the tournament on or after December 18… and complete the first two rounds by December 30, so that the girls can get some rest as well as some practice time before the West Indies tour," he said, adding that if they cannot avail the desired BKSP venues – which are currently hosting the first division and second division matches – the WBCL matches will likely be staged in Rajshahi and Bogura.

The Tigresses are set to play a three-match Women's T20I series against Ireland at home starting Thursday, following their clean sweep of the visitors in the three-match Women's ODI series.