Daily Times

DHAKA: Bangladesh Under-19 will play five one-dayers and a four-day game against Afghanistan Under-19 later this month in Sylhet. It will be the first Afghanistan team to play international cricket in any form since the Taliban takeover of their country, and also the first bit of action for Bangladesh’s U-19 cricketers since the team won the World Cup in February 2020. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) released the final itinerary for the series on Friday, which has the visiting side spending 24 days in Bangladesh, after arriving in the country on Saturday. The Afghanistan team will be in room quarantine for three days before two days of practice ahead of the first one-dayer on September 10. The final one-dayer will be played on September 19 before the teams change into their whites for the four-day game starting September 22. No team that comes under the aegis of the Afghanistan Cricket Board has been seen in action since the Taliban took over in the war-ravaged country, and though the senior men’s team did have an ODI series scheduled against Pakistan in Sri Lanka, it had to be pushed back indefinitely because of logistical challenges.

Afghanistan have announced a squad of 19 players for the tour, but the announcement of the Bangladesh line-up is awaited. Bangladesh are the defending U-19 world champions, having won the country’s first ICC trophy in February 2020 under Akbar Ali’s leadership in South Africa. However, the team has played no cricket since because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This will be their first series as the build-up to the next edition of the World Cup — scheduled to be played in the Caribbean next year — begins.