Tigresses leave for Rajshahi
Bangladesh Women’s Cricket team left the city for Rajshahi on Monday for a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka which will kick-start their campaign in the ICC Women’s Championship 2025-29 cycle, the qualifying competition for the next Women’s ODI World Cup.
However, focusing solely on ODIs is not an option for Nigar Sultana and Co will play against three ODI matches against Sri Lanka on April 20, April 22 and April 25. after the ODI series, they will play three T20Is against the same opponents in Sylhet. Bangladesh will play three T20Is against Sri Lanka on April 28, April 30 and May 2.
The T20I matches will be held marking the preparations for this year’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in June-July. The Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket team will arrive in the city on April 17 and then they will directly reach Rajshahi.
The Tigresses had narrowly missed out direct qualification to the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup in India after finishing seventh. They equalled sixth-placed New Zealand on points, who received the last direct spot, but finished placed one slot below as the White Ferns had one more win than them.
Bangladesh eventually qualified for the World Cup through the qualifiers, but would be hoping to steer clear from that this time. Even though the ODI World Cup still seems far away, starting the campaign on the right foot at home will be crucial.
“There are points up for grabs. Last year we had to play the qualifiers… even one more point would have saved us. We want to play good cricket so we don’t have to play the qualifiers again,” Batting Coach Nasiruddin Faruque Shojib said to a local website.
The Tigresses underwent a camp at BKSP till April 8 as part of their preparations for the upcoming ODIs and T20Is. Team management sources confirmed that alongside ODI-centric work, T20I specific work too had also been done in the camp.
“Our priority right now is the ODI series against Sri Lanka. So, this camp was ODI-based. Additionally, we worked on small details, focusing on match-ups between ODIs and T20Is to bridge that gap,” added Nasiruddin.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced the 15-member squad for the ODI series on Sunday night, where Juairiya Ferdous, who played in the T20 World Cup qualifiers this year, received a maiden ODI call up. Top-order batter Sarmin Sultana, a 32-year-old who last played ODIs for the Tigresses in 2019, was also included.
With the T20I World Cup preparations going into full swing, Bangladesh Women’s Cricket team’s busy schedule is set to continue after the T20I series against Sri Lanka with a camp in Dhaka before embarking for a tri-nation series in Scotland.
Bangladesh squad: Nigar Sultana Joty (Captain), Nahida Akter (Vice-Captain), Fargana Haque, Sobhana Mostary, Fahima Khatun, Sharmin Akter Supta, Ritu Moni, Shorna Akter, Rabeya Khan, Sarmin Sultana, Marufa Akter, Fariha Islam Trisna, Sultana Khatun, Sanjida Akter Meghla and Juairiya Ferdous.
