Tigers face Zimbabwe in 1st T20I today with T20 WC in mind

Bangladesh are all set to kick-start its T20 World Cup preparation formally by taking on Zimbabwe in a five-match series at two venues across the country.

The series opening game will be held today (Friday) at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram, report agencies.

The match will starts from 6 PM (BST).

The port city will host the second and third game too before the final two T20 Internationals will be held at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in the city.

Zimbabwe won the last bilateral series between the two sides in this format by 2-1 at their own country in 2022 but that doesn't necessarily mean that Bangladesh will be on the back foot, said its captain Najmul Hossain Shanto.

He also said Bangladesh won't be making too many many experiments in this series as they build up to the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies.

This will be Bangladesh's last T20I series at home before they depart for USA where they prepare for the global event with a three-match T20I series against the hosts. Zimbabwe, meanwhile, won't be part of the 20-team tournament as they were defeated by Namibia and Uganda and eventually lost out in the Africa leg of the qualifiers.

"There are no big or small teams in T20s. As you said, Zimbabwe lost to Uganda. This Zimbabwe beat Sri Lanka recently. If we think like that, there is not much of a difference," said Najmul. "How we are playing the match, the way we are preparing, how we are building our self-confidence... I can say this much that this series will not be that easy. It will be a very competitive series because they are also a very good team.

"First of all, I want to win this series as a captain. This is the first goal. And the preparation will surely be in our minds. It is not as though we will do a lot of experiments for the preparation. We will not need to experiment since all the 15 players here are capable of beating this team. I won't say preparation. I will hope that we can take good preparation in some cases, going into the World Cup," he said.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza said the team be haunted for years as they failed to qualify for the T20 World Cup. "Funny enough, I knew that question will come," Raza said, when a reporter asked him how painful it was for them to not be playing in the ICC event.

"I think that's something that will always be painful. Not just when we play, I think even when we retire and sit down with people that we play cricket with and the people in the management as well because it hurts them equally as well. I think it will always be painful that we're not going to the World Cup. So, it's not just pain that we're feeling now, I think it's something that we're going to have to carry for a long time," he said.