BAN vs AFG: Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim Return To Bangladesh T20I Squad

Senior Bangladesh players Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim returned back to the side as Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Monday announced a 14-member T20I squad for the home T20I series against Afghanistan.

Shakib, who played his last T20I match against West Indies in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, missed the T20I series against Pakistan. The veteran Bangladesh all-rounder also opted out of the two-match Test series against New Zealand last month.

Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan and Litton Das returns back to Afghanistan T20I series

Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim also missed the T20I series against Pakistan but returns back to the squad along with Litton Das for the shortest format.

We have kept a close eye on Munim Shahriar for quite some time: BCB

The BCB has also roped in uncapped players Munim Shahriar and Yasir Ali based on their performance in the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League 2022.

In BPL 2022, Shahriar amassed 178 runs in six matches at the strike rate of 152 for Fortune Barishal while Yasir scored 219 runs from 11 matches at 139.49 for Khulna Titans. BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin said they were observing Shahriar for a close time and will try to fit Yasir into the team.

”We have kept a close eye on Munim for quite some time. We had also kept him in the High-Performance Unit earlier and now we want to see how he performs at international level,”  Minhajul Abedin told Cricbuzz. 

‘Yasir also did well in BPL and we are aware of his hitting ability, so we are trying to see whether he fits in somewhere in the middle-order or not,” he added.

Bangladesh will host Afghanistan for three ODI matches at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram followed by a couple of T20I matches in Dhaka, the series starts on Wednesday (February 23) with the first ODI.

Bangladesh T20I squad for Afghanistan T20Is: Mahmudullah (capt.), Litton Das, Munim Shahriar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Yasir Ali, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Shohidul Islam, Mohammad Naim

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