Tigers now to play three-match T20 series against Afghanistan

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) now decided to play a three-match Twenty20 series against Afghanistan instead of the proposed One Day International (ODI) series in a bid to prepare for the next edition of the World T20 in 2020, reports Cricbuzz.

The announcement came during the third meeting of the board directors at Mirpur in the city. It was also revealed that the T20 series will be played in Dehradun. Since Bangladesh are set to play a full series against the Windies following the Afghanistan series, BCB was looking to play at a venue that's comfortable for travelling. However, with all the other venues preoccupied, BCB had to settle for Dehradun.

"We have ICC T20 World Cup ahead but we are not playing enough T20 matches. So we decided to play the series against Afghanistan in T20 format,'' BCB president Nazmul Hasan, said. "We will play the series in Dehradun as other venues are preoccupied,'' he added, having mentioned earlier that they would have preferred to play the series in Kolkata or Bangalore.

Afghanistan, who earned their Test status recently, will debut with a one-off Test against India, starting June 14.

According to BCB, Afghanistan had initially planned to host Bangladesh in UAE but once they failed to do so, the ACB considered the option of India, where they have played before. BCCI had alloted the Shahid Vijay Singh Pathik Sports complex in Noida to Afghanistan for the 2015-16 season.