Afghanistan to play three-match T20 series against Bangladesh in Dehradun

Bangladesh will now take on Afghanistan in a three-match T20 series instead of a proposed ODI series as part of their preparations for the 2020 ICC World T20.

The decision to replace the ODI series with T20s was taken during the third meeting of board directors of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in Mirpur. During the meeting, BCB also revealed Dehardun as the venue for the series. Though Bangladesh earlier wanted their matches to be held either in Kolkata or Bangaluru, they had to make do with Dehradun as the other venues were already preoccupied.

“We have ICC T20 World Cup ahead but we are not playing enough T20I matches. So we decided to play the series against Afghanistan in T20 format,’’ BCB president Nazmul Hasan was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

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“We will play the series in Dehradun as other venues are preoccupied,’’ he added.

BCB also informed that earlier Afghanistan had plans to host Bangladesh in UAE but since that didn’t materialize, Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chose to organise matches in India where they have played in past too. In fact, BCCI had given Afghanistan Shahid Vijay Singh Pathik Sports complex in Noida to host their matches for the entire season of 2015-16.

Afghanistan was recently awarded Test status and they will make Test debut with a one-off Test against India beginning on June 14 in Bangaluru.

The ODI series with Bangladesh will be held sometimes before the historic Test.