Junior Tigers face Afghans

Bangladesh Under-19 cricket team will face the Afghanistan U-19 team in the first One-Day match of the five-match series today at Sylhet.

This is the first tour of any Afghan sports team after the change in the country’s political landscape where the Taliban took over control.

The series was delayed due to political turmoil but finally, all the Afghan cricketers managed to reach Bangladesh, and after the quarantine period, the series is starting today which is also the first international series for the junior Tigers.

Bangladesh, being the holders of the U-19 World Cup, is eyeing to defend the title in the upcoming edition in 2022 and for that, the BCB had an ambitious plan of arranging more youth team tours to allow them to play more matches ahead of the final tournament. But due to the Covid situation, things did not go as planned.

BCB has announced an 18-member squad for the five-match One-Day series against Afghanistan where middle-order batsman SM Meherob Hasan is made the captain, and Aich Mollah is the vice-captain.

Ahead of the first game, Meherob told the media that the whole team is finally happy to play against a cross-border opposition.

“We have done few camps, but due to the pandemic, we did not have the chance to play as many matches. However, we have played few practice matches among us to prepare ourselves. In the coming series against Afghanistan, we are hopeful of doing something good,” said the left-handed batsman.