DHAKA: Former skipper Shakib Al Hasan returned to the fold while Najmul Hossain Shanto missed the bus as Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Thursday named a 15-man squad for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka, starting May 23.

Bangladesh has announced the squad for the first two ODIs which will be played on Sunday (May 23) and May 25 respectively. Naim Sheikh, Taijul Islam, Shohidul Islam, and Aminul Islam Biplob have been named as the standby players by BCB. “The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announces the squad for the first and second ODIs against Sri Lanka,” BCB said in an official statement.

Bangladesh Squad: Tamim Iqbal (capt), Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mohammad Saifuddin, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Soumya Sarkar, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Shoriful Islam.

The Kusal Perera-led Sri Lanka squad arrived in Dhaka for the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh on Sunday. The squad has now completed the three-day quarantine and will begin practice on Friday.

The three-match series which is a part of the ODI Super League will conclude on May 28 and will be held within a bio-bubble stretching between the team hotel and Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.

After the conclusion of the ODI series on May 28, the Sri Lankan team will depart on the following day. This will be Bangladesh’s third ODI series within the ICC’s World Cup qualifying campaign. They are currently in sixth place after defeating West Indies 3-0 at home in January.

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh recently played a two-match Test series, which was won by the former. Sri Lanka had defeated Bangladesh by 209 runs in the second Test, while the first ended in a draw.

Former Australia batsman Michael Hussey has said that it would be difficult to play T20 World Cup in India this year because of the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On May 4, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 was postponed due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases. After it was postponed, Hussey (CSK batting coach) ended up testing positive for Covid-19 and he has now finally returned to Australia. “I think it’s going to be very difficult in my view to play T20 World Cup in India. We’re talking about eight teams in the IPL. I think there are probably a similar number, maybe more teams coming in from overseas for the T20 World Cup, there’d be more venues. As I said earlier, if they’re playing in different cities, that is when the risk goes up,” Hussey told Fox Cricket.

“I think they’ll have to look some pretty big contingency plans, perhaps looking at the UAE or somewhere like that that could host the World T20. I think there will be a lot of cricket boards around the world that’d be pretty nervous about going back to India for a cricket tournament,” he added.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has called for a Special General Meeting (SGM) to be conducted virtually on May 29 with an eye on the ICC meeting to be held on June 1.

The focus of the meeting will be discussing the hosting of the T20 World Cup. Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments in the board said that the idea to call for the meeting is to discuss the way forward with hosting the T20 World Cup in October-November.

“The ICC will have the meeting on June 1 and before that, we will have our own meeting on May 29 to discuss the COVID-19 situation and what all measures need to be taken with an eye on the T20 World Cup which is slated to be held in India in October-November,” the source said.

The BCCI has picked nine venues for the event — Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Dharamsala, and Lucknow.

In the last Apex Council meeting, the state associations had been told to keep preparations on for the event with an eye on the coronavirus pandemic.

NEW DELHI: Twenty-eight pugilists will fly punches for 4 flyweight medals at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. Indian boxing sensation Amit Panghal carries lots of hopes in the 52 kg division. Let’s have a look at his preparations for the most important medal of his career.

Amit became a household name when he returned with a gold medal from Jakarta Asian Games 2018. What’s more significant about the performance was his summit win over reigning Olympic Champion Hasanboy Dusmatov from Uzbekistan. Hasanboy could have been his biggest threat. Armyman from Rohtak tested defeat from him in QF of the 2017 AIBA World Boxing Championships. Thankfully, Hasanboy is now a professional boxer and he is not participating in the Olympics.

Well, Shakhobidin Zoirov could be the biggest hurdle for the Indian. Reigning Olympic Champion and World Champion is currently World number two. Getting past the Uzbeki boxer will be the herculean task for the Indian. In their last meeting in the 2019 AIBA World Boxing Championship in Yekaterinburg (Russia), Amit learned a cruel boxing lesson. He lost 5-0 to Zoirov in the final.

Billal Bennama of France lost to Zoirov in the SF of World Boxing Championship in 2019. Boxer from France could give a tough time to Amit. Indian won quite comfortably in their last meeting. The 25-year-old Indian defeated the Frenchman 5-0 in the Semi-Final of World Boxing 2020 at Cologne.

Saken Bilosinov of Kazakhstan lost to Amit in an intense battle in the same tournament in SF. Kazak pugilist is participating in Tokyo. Daniel Panev Asenov is another sensation. The double European champion cannot be taken lightly. Bulgarian is number 3 in the world in the last updated rankings of Boxing. Hu Jianguan of China clinched Bronze in Rio 2016. His most significant win was over southpaw Cuban Yasveni Veltia. Hu must be looking to upgrade his medal in Tokyo.

Mohd Flissi (Algeria) is a veteran. He must be looking to finish his career at a high. Gabriel Escobar (ESP) and Brandan Ervine (Ireland) will do everything to prove that they are not making up the numbers.

Amit is currently world number 1. He qualified after he defeated Carlo Paalam who is part of the Philippines squad at Tokyo.

The diminutive Indian is known for his foot movement. His short frame could give an advantage for uppercuts and executing sharp angular punches. Now, Amit is connecting well with flawless technique. With time, the rising star has matured in defending. Undoubtedly, he is the biggest Indian hope. He is a big fan of Indian movie star Dharmendra. His wish after the gold at Jakarta was to meet his matinee idol. It was fulfilled with a warm heart from the cine-star.

The road to glory is very tough for the Haryana boxer at the Japanese capital. Gold is all we need.

LONDON: The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA) have confirmed the Men’s and Women’s Ashes schedule for 2021-22 to be staged in Australia.

The first Men’s Ashes Test will begin at Brisbane’s Gabba from December 8-12 ahead of a day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval from December 16-20. The traditional Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (December 26-30) and Sydney Cricket Ground (January 5-9) respectively, with the final Test scheduled for Perth’s Optus Stadium (January 14-18), as per the ECB release.

For the first time in 26 years, the final Ashes Test will not be staged in Sydney.

The multi-format Women’s Ashes series will begin at Manuka Oval, Canberra, with the Test match from January 27-30.

The white-ball matches, which combine with the Test match to form the multi-format series, kick off with three T20Is, to be played at the North Sydney Oval, Sydney (February 4 and 6) and the Adelaide Oval (February 10).

The multi-format series concludes with three ODIs at Adelaide Oval (February 13) and the Junction Oval in Melbourne (February 16 and 19).

At the end of the Women’s Ashes series, England will depart for New Zealand to participate in the ICC Women’s World Cup in a year that will also see them represent Team England at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The UK-bound cricketers have started assembling in Mumbai, and the likes of Mithali Raj, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Mayank Agarwal, and Washington Sundar reached the destination through a charter flight.

The BCCI’s official handle tweeted pictures of these players flying to Mumbai and they captioned the post as: “First stop, Mumbai. #TeamIndia. The men’s team will leave for the UK for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and then the five-match Test series against England.

On the other hand, the women’s team will lock horns against England in a one-off Test, three T20Is, and three ODIs.

The BCCI had made a foolproof plan for the national team before they depart for the UK to play the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and the five-match Test series against England.

Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of the roadmap drawn had said arrangements have been made for all the players to undergo three RT-PCR tests before assembling in Mumbai on May 19.

“The players will be undergoing three RT-PCR tests at their homes, and once they return negative tests, they will be assembling in Mumbai on May 19. Everyone in the contingent will be undergoing 14-day quarantine in India before they leave for the UK on June 2,” said the source.

Almost all the members of the Indian contingent set to depart for the UK have taken the first dose of their Covid-19 vaccine and they are likely to take the second jab in the UK itself.

India’s Squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul (subject to fitness clearance), Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper; subject to fitness clearance).

Wicketkeeper-batsman K.S. Bharat will be travelling to the UK with the India men’s squad for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and five-match Test series against England. The wicket-keeper is cover for Wriddhiman Saha who has just recovered from Covid-19. Although Saha has recovered in time to enter the bio-bubble in Mumbai before leaving for the UK on June 2, the selection committee did not take any chances and they decided to add Bharat to the group with an eye on the Covid-19 protocols and guidelines.

Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments said it was a precautionary step with an eye on Saha’s recovery from Covid-19.

“He was added as cover for Saha considering he was still recovering from the virus and wicket-keeping is a specialised job. If Saha wasn’t fit in time, we would have needed a second keeper in the squad for the tour which is a three-month long one,” the source said.

The BCCI had made a foolproof plan for the national team before they depart for the UK to play the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and the five-match Test series against England.

The roadmap drawn had arrangements made for all the players to undergo three RT-PCR tests before assembling in Mumbai on Wednesday in charter planes. The Indian players will also be administered the second COVID-19 vaccine by the UK health department.

India’s Squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul (subject to fitness clearance), Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper; subject to fitness clearance).