Sports Reporter :
Bangladesh Cricket squad left the city for the United States of America (USA) on Wednesday midnight to take part in the ICC T20 World Cup scheduled to be held at the USA and the West Indies from June 2 to June 29.
Before leaving the country for USA, Bangladesh Cricket squad posed for a photo session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in the capital on Wednesday noon. The cricketers of the squad, coaching staff and President of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Nazmul Hassan, Chairman of the Cricket Operations Committee of the BCB Jalal Yunus, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BCB Nizam Uddin Chowdhury also participated in the official photo session with them.
The BCB announced on Tuesday the 15-member Bangladesh Cricket squad for the ICC T20 World Cup. There were two attention-grabber announcement in that squad. One was Taskin Ahmed, who was named the vice-captain of the squad and the other was pacer Mohammad Saifuddin, who was dropped from the squad.
Before taking part in the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh Cricket team will play three-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series against the hosts USA Cricket team at Houston in Texas. Bangladesh will take on USA in the first T20I on May 21, the Tigers will face USA in the second T20I on May 23, Bangladesh will meet USA in the third T20I on May 25.
A total of 20 cricket teams splitting into four groups will take part in the first phase of the T20 World Cup. Top two teams from each group will play in the ‘Super Eight’ phase. Bangladesh, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Nepal are in Group-D. This group is also called ‘Death Group’.
Bangladesh will start their ICC T20 World campaign on June 8. They will face Sri Lanka in their first match at Dallas in Texas on June 8 before they will take on South Africa in their second match in New York on June 10.
The Tigers will play against Netherlands in their third match at Kingstown in Jamaica of West Indies on June 13. The Tigers will take on Nepal in their fourth match at the same venue on June 17.
Bangladesh Cricket squad: Najmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Litton Das, Tanzid Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah Riyad, Jaker Ali, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed (Vice-Captain), Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tanvir Islam and Shoriful Islam.
Traveling Reserve: Afif Hossain, Hasan Mahmnud.