Five Indian Players To Play In Asia XI vs World XI Series In Bangladesh, Confirms BCCI

Jayesh George, the joint secretary of BCCI, has confirmed that there will be Indian players participating in the Asia XI vs World XI games in Bangladesh in March next year. Bangladesh will host two T20Is to celebrate the 100th birthday of their Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The two matches will be played on March 18 and 21, 2020 in Mirpur. Both the games will have international status.

Earlier media reports suggested that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had requested its Indian counterpart to allow the big names of Indian cricket to play in the forthcoming series. The reports suggested that the BCB wanted BCCI to send the likes of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rohit Sharma.

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BCCI confirms players’ participation:

While only time will tell which players will visit Bangladesh for the series between Asia XI and World XI, Jayesh George has confirmed that Indian players will feature in it. He confirmed that the Indian cricket board has decided it would send five players to Bangladesh. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly would now take a final call on which players would travel to the neighbouring country.

“Our board has decided to send five players. It has been left to the BCCI president (Sourav Ganguly) to decide which five players would go to Bangladesh,” he told bdcrictime.

BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chaudhary also spoke about the series, saying that the BCB has requested the other Asian countries to send their players too. He also confirmed that the

“These two T-20 matches will be played between March 18 to 22. We have requested all Asian countries to send few players and depending upon their players’ availability, the teams would participate,” he said before adding: “The Rest of the World XI will be chosen by the BCB.”

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see whether Ganguly allows the big names to play in the series.India will be playing an ODI series against South Africa when the Asia XI vs World XI series starts in Bangladesh. The three-match ODI series ends on March 18, the same day the series in Bangladesh starts. The regular India players are more than likely to skip the game in Bangladesh.

MS Dhoni, who is not a part of the team right now, could be on his way to Bangladesh. The second match will be played on March 21 and it would be interesting to see whether the players travel to Bangladesh for just one T20.